ptmmm 


MODERN 
PHILANTHROPY 

A  STUDY  OF  EFFICIENT 
APPEALING  AND  GIVING 

WILLIAM   H.  ALLEN 


M 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


«  «       «         C  j  t 


MODERN 
PHILANTHROPY 

A  STUDY  OF  EFFICIENT 
APPEALING  AND  GIVING 


BY 
WILLIAM  H. 


ALLEN 

u 


Director,  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  and  National 

Training  School  for  Public  Service 

Author  of  "  Efficient  Democracy,"  "Civics  and  Health,' 

"  Woman's  Part  in  (Jovernment,"  Joint  Author 

of  "School  Reports  and  School  Efficiency." 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1912 


Copyright,  1912 

By  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 

Published,  November,  1912 


•    •  •  •• 


FOREWORD 

Out  of  a  great  opportunity  that  came  to  me  Dr. 
Allen  has  drawn  many  valuable  lessons  and  sugges- 
tions, with  my  approval  and  the  hope  that  new  light 
may  be  thrown  by  this  book  upon  time  worn  cus- 
toms and  ideas. 

Charity  and  Philanthropy  have  been  factors  for 
civilization,  and  have  also  been  made  to  "  cover  a 
multitude  of  sins."  Would  that  we  might  do  away 
with  these  terms,  keeping  only  their  spirit, —  "  lov- 
ing one's  neighbor  as  one's  self,"  —  doing  one's  ut- 
most to  insure  equal  opportunity  for  all  to  become 
efficient. 

Gifts  spiritual,  gifts  mental,  and  gifts  material 
are  the  three  greatest  means  of  expressing  human 
interest.  They  have  been  unequally  bestowed  upon 
men  and  unequally  obtained  by  men.  Because  in- 
dividuals whom  we  can  see  have  the  making  and  the 
control  of  material  gifts,  there  is  a  tendency  to  ex- 
aggerate their  importance  and  undervalue  gifts 
mental  and  gifts  spiritual.  Yet  all  three  gifts  are 
equally  meant  to  advance  and  to  improve  the  world 
and  should  be  equally  appreciated.  He  who  sees 
God's  image  in  men  is  able  to  help  others  prove  it. 
He  who  understands  law  and  order  and  systems  for 
wise  government  and  healthy  living  can  show  others 
how  to  bring  them  about.     He  who  possesses  the 


254565 


vi  FOREWORD 

riches  of  the  earth  may  so  use  them  as  to  produce 
the  greatest  good  for  the  greatest  number. 

In  the  exercise  of  the  three  gifts  men  are  happy 
and  other  men  rise  up  and  call  them  blessed  and 
famous  or  "  princely."  So  why  indulge  in  so  much 
talk  about  Charity  and  Philanthropy  when  givers 
themselves  universally  testify  that  the  best  using  of 
one's  own  gifts  is  the  greatest  joy  and  best  develop- 
ment ? 

The  world  over,  it  is  recognized  that  the  welfare 
of  the  government  is  bound  up  with  the  welfare  of 
the  individual  and  that  the  strength  of  the  family 
is  as  the  strength  of  each  member.  Why  not  con- 
centrate united  individual  efforts  upon  making  effi- 
cient government  everywhere?  Instead  of  being 
satisfied  with  intense  individualism,  let  that  individu- 
alism lead  the  way  to  establishing  good  government 
for  the  benefit  of  all.  Today  there  are  very  strong 
signs  of  a  general  awakening  to  the  advantage  of 
such  cooperation. 

Man's  individual  gifts  must  be  used  systematically 
as  well  as  sympathetically  to  be  successful  in  their 
mission  of  benefiting  himself,  his  country  and  his 
race.  In  all  that  Dr.  Allen  does  for  such  possibili- 
ties in  this  book,  I  would  commend  it  to  our  public, 
—  to  those  who  give  and  to  those  who  receive  money, 
vision,  leadership  and  cooperation. 

Mary  W.  Harriman. 
Arden  House, 
July,  1912. 


PREFACE 

So  far  as  letters  of  appeal  to  rich  men  and  women 
have  heretofore  been  explained  to  the  public,  they 
have  been  treated  as  curios  or  nuisances.  "  Human 
interest  "  and  "  local  color  "  attach  to  the  phonetic 
feeling  and  spelling  evidenced  by  mutch,  bui,  widow's 
might,  simply  orfall,  impreshun,  remorse  greatly, 
etc.  The  curio  instinct  is  gratified  by  appeals  for 
money  to  pay  debts  contracted  without  a  husband's 
knowledge,  to  provide  a  dowry,  or  to  build  a  church 
where  once  a  year  may  gather  in  one  grand  halle- 
lujah service  the  13,000,000  black  souls  in  the 
United  States. 

But  along  with  human  interest  and  curios  philan- 
thropy's mail  bag  has  lessons  of  tremendous  impor- 
tance to  the  giver  and  not-yet-giver,  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  organized  appealer,  and  to  the  student 
of  public  affairs.  Our  examination  of  6,000  appeals 
to  Mrs.  E.  H   Harriman  shows  — 

1.  That  nowhere  have  givers  adequate  means  of 

learning  what  is  most  needed  in  their  com- 
munities 

2.  That  even  the  simpler  forms  of  philanthropy 

are  not  comprehensively  organized  even  in 
those  cities  where  relief  is  supposed  to  be 
thoroughly  organized,  while  in  most  cities 
and   in   practically   all   smaller   communities 


viii  PREFACE 

helpfulness  is  not  commensurate  with  easily 
remediable  necessity 

3.  That  agencies  already  well  financed,  and  with 

reputable  managers,  are  more  certain  of  an 
audience  with  the  rich  than  are  new  activi- 
ties representing  urgent  needs 

4.  That    needs    of    an    earlier    generation    have 

readier  audience  than  present  needs  or  an- 
ticipated needs  of  future  generations 

5.  That  letters  of  appeal  are  educational  oppor- 

tunities which  rich  men  and  women,  in  their 
own  as  well  as  in  the  public  interest,  would 
enjoy  using  and  have  an  obligation  to  use 

6.  That    there    is    need    for    a    correspondence 

school  in  the  art  of  appealing  and  the  art 
of  giving 

7.  That  large  giving  may  be  done  in  a  way  that 

will  enlist  the  cooperation  of  all  who  read 
of  it  even  though  they  do  not  write  letters 
of  appeal 

8.  That   those   who   give   "  without   missing  it " 

are  sure  to  miss  it  in  their  giving 

9.  That    neither    appealing   nor    giving   can   be 

placed  on  an  efficiency  basis  until  there  is 
frank,  open  discussion  of  the  methods  and 
purposes  of  appealing  and  giving 
10.  That  free  discussion  of  benefactions  and  male- 
factions will  be  impossible  until  the  facts 
regarding  present  practice  and  results  are 
made  available 


PREFACE  ix 

11.  That  to  make  experience  available  to  all* there 

is  need  for  a  local  clearing  house  in  each 
state  and  each  large  city,  as  well  as  for  a 
national  clearing  house,  which  shall  welcome 
appeals  from  individuals  and  from  organ- 
ized agencies,  study  them  and  make  educa- 
tional use  of  them  among  givers,  appealers, 
newspaper  writers  and  students  of  social 
forces 

12.  That  agencies  are  needed  in  every  state,  every 

city  and  every  county  which  will  advertise 
ways  out  of  trouble,  just  as  the  big  corre- 
spondence schools  market  education  and  as 
the  big  correspondence  stores  market  ice 
cream  freezers  or  dry  goods 

13.  That  just  as  the  mere  accident  of  writing  an 

appeal  does  not  in  itself  entitle  a  writer  to 
relief,  so  in  any  sane  scheme  of  social  ad- 
vance the  accident  of  not  writing  an  appeal 
should  not  preclude  possibility  or  likelihood 
of  obtaining  relief 

14.  That   private   philanthropy,   no   matter   how 

lavish  and  wise,  cannot  take  the  place  of  ef- 
ficient government  or  of  the  philanthropic 
motive  in  private  business 
The  facts  given  in  Part  I  are  all  matter  of  record, 
and  are  stated  impersonally  with  Mrs.  Harriman's 
approval.     With  obvious  exceptions  italicised  mat- 
ter is  directly  quoted  from  letters  here  reviewed. 
For  criticisms  in  Part  II,  I  alone  am  responsible, 


x  PREFACE 

although  I  have  submitted  the  manuscript  to  Mrs. 
Harriman  and  availed  myself  of  criticisms  and  sug- 
gestions from  her  and  from  many  recognized  au- 
thorities in  various  fields  of  private  benevolence. 
With  respect  to  many  points  I  have  ventured  criti- 
cisms —  even  after  disapproval  or  qualification  by 
some  of  those  who  have  read  the  manuscript, —  be- 
cause they  ring  true  with  my  own  observations  and 
studies  of  public  giving  during  the  past  twelve  years. 

In  making  the  constructive  suggestions  of  Part 
III  and  Part  IV  Mrs.  Harriman  joins  with  me,  for 
reasons  stated  in  the  Foreword  which  she  has  been 
good  enough  to  write. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  study  will  prompt  similar 
studies  in  many  cities,  will  stimulate  a  discussion  of 
giving  among  social  workers  and  those  able  to  give, 
will  encourage  editors  and  students  to  "  look  the 
gift  horse  in  the  mouth,"  and  will  further  the  es- 
tablishment of  clearing  houses  or  clearing  agencies 
in  every  large  community  for  keeping  constantly 
before  the  public  a  list  of  community  needs  not  yet 
met,  so  that  givers  may  know  how  to  be  philan- 
thropic without  creating  maleficiaries. 


CONTENTS 

Foreword    ....      By  Mrs.  E.  H.  Harriman 

Preface vii 

PART  I 

PAGE 

Six  Thousand  Appeals  to  Mrs.  E.  H.  Harriman       3 
What  Mrs.  Harriman  Would  Never  Miss      .      .        3 

Who  are  the  writers? 5 

The  localities  represented 9 

Why  the  letters  were  studied 9 

Why  the  Bureau  of  Municipal   Research  was 

enlisted 12 

How  the  letters  were  studied 15 

What  3,000  Individuals  Wanted  —  $22,000,000  27 

What  children  write 32 

What  foreigners  ask  for 35 

What  Organized  Agencies  Wanted  —  $207,000,- 

000.00 36 

$54,610,234.75  for  schools,  colleges,  etc     .      .  41 

For  local  consumption  only       ....  42 

Especially  for  the  South 43 

In  the  interest  of  the  public  schools     .      .  44 
Nation  wide  educational  opportunities       .  46     / 
$3,377,142.00  for  hospitals  and  health  work     .  48  ^ 
$6,515,562.00  for  homes,  asylums,  etc        .      .  51  • 
$120,942,736.00  for  civic  work,  clubs  and  asso- 
ciations       53 

$21,445,888.50  for  churches,  etc     .      .      .      .  56 
For  local  consumption  only       ....  60 
Nation  wide  opportunities  specified  or  sug- 
gested         61 

Episcopal  bishops  on  church  appealing     .  62 

Clergymen  on  church  appealing  66 
xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Memorials  Suggested 68 

Nation  Wide  Needs  Disclosed 70 

To  universalize  present  knowledge  and  its  use  72 

Search  and  research  for  new  knowledge     .      .  78 

Salvage  —  Relief  and  unremunerative  aid  .      .  81 

Salvage  —  Investment  with  chance  oi  profit     .  86 
4%  to  6%  investments  combining  public  service 

and  private  profit 87 

To    correct    individual    and    social    maladjust- 
ments          91 

To  utilize  by-products 92 

.    To  expose  and  stop  frauds 93 

How  People  Came  to  Write 95 

Ruses  and  Insincerities 98 

Crank  Letters 105 

Methods  of  Approach 110 

Requests   for  personal  interview      .      .      .      .115 
How  the  letters  close      .      .      ...      ,      .      .120 

How  definite  are  the  appeals? 122 

Workmanship  of  Appeals 129 

Details  of  technique  observed 134 

PART  II 

American  Princely  Giving  .      .      .      .      „      .      .147 
One  consequence  of  it:  begging  letters  .      .      .151 
Are  rich  people  imposed  upon  by  begging  let- 
ters?     152 

The  right  to  an  answer 157 

Why  Do  the  Rich  Give? 160 

Seven  motives  for  giving      .      .      .      .      .      .162 

An  apology  for  the  commercial  motive  .      .      .168 

The  vagrant  giver 169 

The  limitation  of  the  personal  interview     .      .172 
Vagrant  trusteeship    .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .177 

The  soul  of  mendicancy .179 


CONTENTS  dii 

PAGE 

The  Endowment  Dream 184 

The  dead  hand  and  the  deadening  live  hand  .  189 
Making  gifts  dependent  upon  other  gifts  .  .193 
Imposing  conditions  upon  the  use  of  gifts    .       .194 

Illustrated  brief  for  conditional  gifts    .      .      .  202 

The  Difficult  Art  of  Giving 209 

Mr.  Rockefeller's  greatest  gift  —  an  invitation 

to  discuss  giving 212 

The  petitioner's  philosophy  of  giving    .      .      .  223 

A  newspaper  symposium  on  giving  ....  225 

142  school  superintendents  on  will  making  .      .  230 

An  illustrative  brief  for  donors  and  testators    .  234 

An  illustrative  letter  re  propaganda      .       .      .  241 

Efficiency  tests  for  will  making 244 

Benjamin  Franklin's  idea  of  will  making    .       .  252 

Giving  directly  to  public  treasuries  ....  256 

Humanizing  Institutions 258 

Endow  men,  not  institutions 264 

Endow  men  via  institutions 265 

The  fetish  of  unconscious  influence    .      .      .  268 


PART  III 

National  Clearing  House  for  Givers    .      .      .   279 
Where  would  a  cooperative  clearing  house  for 


givers  and  appealers  be? 

How  would  it  be  supported? 

Who  would  use  the  clearing  house  ?  . 

What  will  the  clearing  house  do?     . 
Services  for  individual  appealers 
Services  for  institutional  appealers 
Services  for  receivers  of  appeals 
Services  for  givers  . 
Services  for  general  public 

A  five  year  test 

Cost  of  a  five  year  test     . 

Organization  of  a  clearing  house 


280 
280 
281 
282 
282 
286 
287 
287 
289 
293 
293 
294 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Previous  tests  of  the  clearing  house  idea     .      .    295 

1.  The  General  Education  Board's  records 

which    are    open    to    inspection    by 
givers 296 

2.  The  Carnegie  Foundation's  facts  about 

colleges 296 

3.  The  charities  directory 297 

4.  Supervision    of    minor    charities    by    a 

major  charity 298 

5.  Bureau   of  advice  and  information      .    299 

6.  The  certification  of  charities  by  a  cham- 

ber of  commerce  or  other  independ- 
ent committee 300 

7.  A  consolidated  appeal  by  a  certifying 

committee 300 

8.  Division  of  territory  by  "  Gentlemen's 

Agreement  " 302 

9.  Joint  appealing 303 

10.  Combination  of  private  charities  to  se- 
cure contributions  from  all  the  pub- 
lic through  taxes      .      .      .      .      .    304 

Objections  to  a  clearing  house 305 

Who  are  the  givers? 306 

Present  methods  of  reaching  givers       .      .      .311 

Clearing  Standards  of  Appeal 322 

Educational  value  of  appeals 324 

Standardizing  details  of  appealing  technique    .    327 

The  one  page  fetish 330 

Newspaper  advertisement  of  good  causes    .       .    332 
Effective  educational  advertising     ....    339 
Demanding  evidence:  the  evil  repute  of  investi- 
gation        343 

The  100%  cue      ... 344 

Lodging  responsibility  where  it  belongs     .      .    349 

Various  accesses  to  the  rich .354 

Scientific  management  in  volunteer  public  serv- 
ice        360 


CONTENTS  xv 

PAGE 

The  Budgets  of  Privvii:  I'iiii.wtiiiiopy    .      .      .  366 

100%  list  of  municipal  needs 370 

The  budget  of  municipal   needs  to  be  met  by 

public    philanthropy      ....  371 
The  budget  of  municipal  needs  to  be  met  by 

private  philanthropy       ....  374 
The  charitable  agency's  budget       ....  376 
The  giver's  own  charity  budget       ....  377 
The  budget  of  needs  adequately  met    .      .      .  379 
Benefactions  Via  Tax  on  Inheritance  Trans- 
fers and  Incomes 380 

Constant  emphasis  upon  government  agencies    .  383 

PART  IV 

A  Magna  Charta  for  Givers 391 

The  right  to  give 393 

The  right  to  impose  conditions       ....  393 

The  right  to  stop   giving 393 

The  right  to  refuse  to  give 394 

The  right  to  protection   against  importunity  395 

The  right  to  enjoy  giving* 395 

The  right  to  give  where  one's  interest  is    .      .  395 

The  right  to  give  one's  self  with  one's  gift     .  396 

The  right  to  initiate 398 

The  right  to  give  more  ways  than  one       .       .  398 
The  right  to  freedom  from  self-imposed  arbi- 
trary restrictions 398 

The  right  to  give  interest  without  giving  money  399 

The  right  to  information  before  giving     .      .  400 

The  right  to  alternatives  for  giving     .      .       .  400 

The  right  to  know  100%  about  alternatives    .  400 

The  right  to  question 400 

The  right  to  give  without  hurting        .      .      .  402 
The  right  to     protection     against    disappoint- 
ment       402 

The  right  to  avoid  gambling  when  giving      .  404 
The  right  to  one's  money's  worth  of  result  for 

one's  self  and  one's  beneficiaries     .  405 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  right  to  reports  of  results       ....    405 
The  right  to  reports  of  work  not  done  sepa- 
rated from  work  done     ....    405 
The  right  to  know   the   world's   experience  in 

giving 408 

The  right  to  expert,  unprejudiced  counsel  .  408 
The  right  to  a  public  informed  about  giving  .  410 
The  right  to  give  secretly  or  anonymously  .  412 
The  right  to  protection  against  indiscriminate 

praise 414 

The  right  to  be  dealt  with  sincerely  .  .  .415 
The  right  to  clearing    houses    of    information 

about  needs,  appeals  and  gifts  .      .419 
The  right  to  grow  in  understanding     .      .      .    420 
The  right  to  know  the  relation  of  each  bene- 
faction to  government    .      .      .      .420 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Pin  Map  Showing  Source  of  Appeals  Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 
Appeals  Without  Words:  For  Churches  16 
Appeals  Without  Words:  For  Waifs  .      .  54 
Appeals  Without  Words:  Meeting  Chil- 
dren's Needs 76 

Educational     Opportunities-:     Envelopes 
Marked  "  Personal,"  "  Confidential," 

etc 114 

Helping    the    Addressee    to    Understand  124 

Appeals  Without  Words:  For  Indians    .  154 

An    Appealers'   '-'Model"    .*     .      .      .      .  182 

Publicity  Post  Cards:  Saving  Babies   .       .  200 
Appeals  Without  Words:  At  School  or 

at    Work? 232 

One  Method  of  Meeting  a  Civic  Need   .  272 

Needs    Not-Yet-Met 302 

The  Science  of  Appealing  Illustrated   .  326 

Appeals  Without  Words  :  Needs  Met  .  350 
Appeals  Without  Words  :  The  Men  of  the 

Pews 382 

A  Notable  Appeal  Without  Words   .      .  396 


PART  I 


Six  Thousand  Appeals  to  Mrs.  E.  H.  Harriman 

During  the  two  years  1910  and  1911  the  Bureau  of 
Municipal  Research  studied  6,000  letters  of  appeal 
written  to  Mrs.  E.  H.  Harriman  by  individuals, 
churches,  hospitals,  charitable  agencies,  universities, 
etc.,  from  all  corners  of  the  globe.  Three  thousand 
men,  women  and  children  in  the  United  States  asked 
$22,000,000  for  themselves;  1,100  benevolent  agen- 
cies in  the  United  States  asked  for  $207,000,000; 
1,400  personal  letters  from  Europe,  Asia,  Africa  and 
Australia  asked  for  $32,000,000;  while  150  institu- 
tions of  various  kinds  from  foreign  countries  asked 
for  $6,000,000. 

These  letters  by  no  means  include  all  appeals  made 
to  Mrs.  Harriman  in  these  two  years.  Many  of 
the  largest  sums  were  requested  verbally.  Others 
came  in  such  personal  ways  that  Mrs.  Harriman  did 
not  send  them  to  us  for  analysis.  Others  came  at 
times  when  it  was  not  convenient  to  have  them  sent 
to  us.  But  while  the  total  amounts  are  understated, 
the  analysis  is  correct  as  to  the  6,000  letters  studied. 

"  What  You  Would  Never  Miss  " 

With  few  exceptions  requests  are  prefaced  with 
the  assurance  that  writers  want  only  what  Mrs. 
Harriman  would  never  miss.  You  can  send  me 
\000  and  never  miss  it.     While  this  particular 


4  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

request  came  from  Montana,  it  has  innumerable  com- 
panion requests  from  all  corners  of  the  globe  for 
amounts  that  range  from  no  matter  how  little  to 
hundreds  of  thousands  and  even  millions.  Just 
think,  writes  a  Californian,  you  could  never  miss 
$1,700  and  when  a  man  goes  to  the  home  beyond  he 
cannot  take  his  riches  with  him.  Says  a  New  Jer- 
sey mother  wanting  $2,000  for  a  chicken  farm:  If 
you  will  send  me  just  that  small  amount  you  can 
never  miss  it  from  your  large  amount.  In  all  ap- 
parent sincerity  another  request  from  woman  to 
woman  suggests :  Please  do  sit  down  and  write  a 
check  for  one  million  dollars.  It  will  look  so  small 
that  you  will  see  you'll  never  miss  the  sum  and  make 
me  famous  and  fortunate.  From  a  township  board 
in  Missouri  is  written:  You  would  scarcely  miss 
that  amount  ($50,000)  and,  oh!  what  a  heavenly 
assistance  it  would  be  to  us.  One  excited  metaphor- 
ical lady  wanted  just  a  drop  from  your  overflowing 
bucket  for  a  sister  in  deep  waters. 

Such  metaphor  is  not  confined  to  mothers  in  Ore- 
gon who  want  to  buy  homes ;  nor  to  European  girls 
who  want  dowries ;  nor  to  inventors  who  want  back- 
ing; nor  to  self-admitted  beautiful  Kentucky  girls 
who  are  assured  that  with  a  musical  training  they 
will  rival  Mary  Garden  and  Alma  Gliick;  nor  to 
New  York  youths  who  want  to  start  in  business. 

Trustees  of  churches,  hospitals,  colleges  and 
charitable  societies  likewise  come  to  believe  that  when 
fortunes  pass  the  million  mark  they  also  pass  the 


"  WITHOUT  MISSING  IT  *  5 

nii>siiifr  mark.  So  they  write:  Will  you  give  from 
/jour  bounties?  or  We  take  the  liberty  to  write  to 
you  for  a  small  share  of  your  enormous  wealth;  or 
While  of  course  the  demands  upon  you  are  enormous, 
we  trust  you  will  grant  this  request.  With  similar 
casual  introductions  they  ask  for  a  million  dollars 
to  start  a  college  in  Oklahoma;  $50,000  for  a  mis- 
sion among  the  mountain  whites  of  the  south;  or 
$90,000  to  build  a  new  church  in  the  Dakotas. 

While  not  every  letter  says  in  so  many  words  that 
$500  will  not  be  any  more  than  a  drop  of  water  to 
youy  or  that  $200,000  will  be  a  drop  —  an  unneces- 
sary drop  —  in  your  bucket,  there  is  in  all  of  these 
letters  the  implication  that  Mrs.  Harriman  can  at 
least  afford  to  grant  the  request.  In  literally  hun- 
dreds of  letters  are  expressions  to  the  effect  that  if 
she  could  only  see  the  conditions  as  the  writer  sees 
them  she  could  not  help  granting  the  request. 

Who  the  Writers  Are 

The  general  impression  of  so-called  "  begging 
letters  "  is  that  appeals  are  sent  to  the  rich  chiefly 
by  unreasonable  persons,  self  centered  if  not  slightly 
unbalanced.  The  letters  here  reviewed  do  not  bear 
out  that  impression. 

Even  the  personal  letters  asking  money  for  the 
writers  without  the  slightest  altruistic  pretense  are, 
in  most  instances,  reasonable  requests  when  compared 
with  the  writers'  description  of  the  need  which 
prompts  them.     Among  the  writers  are : 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Wife  who  has  lost  $15,000  by  speculation  without 

her  husband's  knowledge 
Relative  of  one  of  America's  best  known  writers 
Daughter,  sole  support  of  paralyzed  mother,  sis- 
ter with  neuritis  and  another  sister  going  blind 
slowly 

Vice-president  of  a  national  bank  desiring  help 
for  local  hospital 

Neighbor  no  longer  able  to  help  a  struggling  girl 
art  student 

Friend  of  a  woman  of  65  already  a  well  known 
teacher  for  many  years  on  missionary  fields  in 
Turkey  .  .  .  anxious  to  go  back  to  work 
among  Turkish  women  and  girls  pathetically 
eager  to  get  western  culture  and  longing  for 
all  sorts  of  practical  things  .  .  .  how  to 
take  care  of  babies,  how  to  fight  tuberculosis, 
typhoid,  etc 

Daughter  of  old  family  whose  home  is  in  the 
French  quarter  where  wealth  once  reigned 

Surveyor  and  engineer  wanting  help  for  a  minis- 
ter brother  injured  in  a  trolley  car  accident 
when  going  to  accept  a  call  from  a  prominent 
church 

Clergyman  wishing  $2,500  for  parishioner  to  con- 
tinue her  fight  for  an  inheritance 

Man  wishing  to  sell  gold  watch  for  which  he  got 
no  use    .     .     .  when  I  see  my  family  go  hungry 

Adopted  daughter  who  has  found  her  own  mother 
and  wants  money  to  start  in  some  business  so 
we  can  live  together 

Aged  woman  wishing  a  little  help  so  that  she  can 
stay  with  her  husband  in  his  last  hours 

Many  persons  wishing  capital  to  be  of  help  to 
some  of  God's  children 


THE  WRITER  OF  APPEALS  7 

Brother  of  a  physician  stricken  with  paralysis 

A  woman  of  over  60  who,  after  40  years  of  pa- 
tient back-breaking  toil  and  such  economy  an 
would  give  the  mother  of  economy  pointers 
.  .  .  come  to  you  as  woman  to  woman 
.  .  .  for  a  few  hundred  dollars  to  help  pay 
mortgage  on  home 

Woman  of  56  who  finds  it  hard  for  a  woman  to 
get  a  start 

Woman  who  could  manage  a  farm  but  could  not 
find  anyone  with  a  farm  to  manage  who  wanted 
a  woman  to  manage  it 

Of  2,839  personal  appeals  less  than  10  percent 
were  altruistic  in  the  sense  of  relating  entirely  to 
others  than  the  writer;  1,325  mentioned  the  writers 
alone;  while  1,215  asked  for  themselves  including 
others.     Two  out  of  three  were  from  women. 

So  far  as  could  be  told  from  the  handwriting,  only 
282  or  about  one  in  10  were  from  illiterate  persons, 
while  338  were  apparently  from  persons  of  far  more 
than  average  education. 

Nearly  one  in  10  were  from  persons  over  60  years 
of  age,  while  only  one  in  25  were  from  minors,  gen- 
erally however  in  the  interest  of  Mamma  who  is  sick 
and  worrying  for  the  debts. 

Enclosures  came  with  330  letters ;  sometimes  a 
stamp,  sometimes  a  photograph  of  homestead,  chil- 
dren or  fiance,  sometimes  pieces  of  lace,  handker- 
chiefs, newspaper  clippings,  catalogues  or  other 
proof  and  argument  to  support  the  appeal. 

Usually  some  special  need  or  difficulty  is  mentioned 


8  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

to  put  the  writer  in  a  different  class  from  that  of  his 
neighbors  and  to  justify  his  appeal.  For  example, 
1,014  mentioned  illness  or  death  in  the  family;  216 
mentioned  business  difficulties;  205,  unemployment; 
173,  old  age  without  savings  or  without  supporting 
relatives ;  26,  marital  difficulties. 

Practically  no  income  group,  no  occupation  group, 
no  culture  group  is  without  representation  among 
the  writers  of  these  appeals.  College  boys  and  girls, 
stevedores,  bishops,  convicts,  ambassadors;  men  and 
women  so  conscious  of  their  culture  that  they  do  not 
want  to  soil  it  by  earning  a  living;  other  men  and 
women  so  conscious  of  lack  of  culture  that  they  want 
help  to  secure  it;  millionaire  trustees  of  charitable 
societies ;  widows  in  distress ;  captains  of  industry 
and  their  employees ;  white,  black,  yellow  —  every 
imaginable  kind  of  person  is  included  in  this  list  of 
correspondents.  Distinguished  names  in  American 
public  life  are  found  on  the  letterheads  of  appeals 
(including  a  president  of  the  United  States  and  an 
ex-president),  and  many  of  them  are  signed  in  fac- 
simile by  secretaries  or  by  owners  themselves.  Edu- 
cators, social  workers  and  journalists  whose  ability 
to  think  for  public  welfare  is  a  greater  asset  to  the 
country  than  any  single  millionaire's  ability  to  give, 
—  sometimes  two  or  even  twelve  append  their  names 
to  one  appeal  in  original  signatures. 

Can  there  be  any  doubt  that  it  is  worth  while  to 
study  an  output  of  suggestions  and  appeals  from 
such  sources? 


LESSONS  IN  A  PIN  MAP  9 

The  Localities  Represented 

It  is  not  merely  the  slum  dweller  or  the  slum  worker 
in  a  great  city  who  writes  to  the  rich  men  and 
women  advertised  in  the  press.  On  the  contrary 
3,500  different  localities  are  represented  by  these 
6,000  appeals.  For  Mrs.  Harriman's  office  and  our 
own  we  prepared  two  pin  maps  indicating  the  local- 
ities in  the  United  States  after  the  first  3,000  let- 
ters had  come.  Little  black  pins  mean  individuals 
asking  for  themselves  and  families.  Large  red  pins 
are  used  for  colleges  and  universities,  little  red  for 
industrial  schools,  etc,  white  for  churches,  green  for 
hospitals,  yellow  for  boys'  clubs,  blue  for  homes  and 
asylums,  lavender  for  scientific  and  civic  bodies. 

The  frontispiece  gives  only  a  vague  impression 
of  the  interest  awakened  by  this  chart.  Visitors 
first  wonder,  then  ask,  then  look  for  their  own  towns) 
and  end  by  saying  "  The  problem  of  giving  efficiently 
is  not  so  simple  as  I  have  been  thinking." 

Why  the  Letters  Were  Studied 

The  first  20  or  50  times  one  reads :  You  will  never 
miss  such  a  trifle,  while  to  me  one  thousand  dollars 
would  look  like  Heaven  itself,  the  heart  response  is 
immediate.  It  seems  imperative  to  answer  an  appeal 
to  save  a  tuberculous  fiance,  rescue  a  paralyzed  baby, 
rebuild  a  church  that  was  struck  by  lightning,  sup- 
ply the  last  fifty  thousand  toward  a  college  which 
will  illumine  a  state,  or  give  an  old  couple  the  longed 
for  trip  back  home.     What  right  have  I  with  an  in- 


10  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

come  of  $50  or  $500  a  day  to  hesitate  when  I  pass 
distress,  or  when  it  comes  to  me  in  my  morning  mail? 
Why  take  a  sobering  second  thought  when  impulse 
says  "  give  "  ? 

Millions  of  people  really  and  truly  believe  that 
Mr.  Carnegie  or  Mr.  Rockefeller  or  Mrs.  Sage  or 
Mrs.  Harriman  "  will  never  miss  "  the  little  that  is 
needed  to  do  the  particular  good  that  they  picture 
themselves  doing  if  only  they  were  millionaires. 
With  millions  in  a  single  hand  it  seems  extraordinary 
to  the  untold  many  who  do  not  write  letters  of  ap- 
peal, as  well  as  to  the  relatively  few  who  do  write 
such  letters,  that  human  distress  should  continue, 
homes  should  be  lost,  or  causes  abandoned  just  for 
want  of  small  gifts  at  the  critical  moment. 

By  January,  1910,  Mrs.  Harriman  had  received 
thousands  of  letters.  To  the  limit  of  her  strength 
and  time  she  had  tried  to  read  them,  especially  per- 
sonal letters  from  organized  agencies  and  letters 
written  by  individuals  who  seemed  to  have  written  in 
good  faith  from  some  obvious  pressing  need.  She 
had  instinctively  responded  to  the  human  cry  from 
one  mother  to  another  mother,  from  one  Christian 
woman  to  another,  from  the  poorest  woman  to  one  of 
the  richest,  etc.  But  with  that  other  instinct,  or 
second  nature,  which  comes  from  giving  thought  with 
money,  she  wanted  to  see  the  end  of  her  responsive- 
ness ;  wanted  to  be  sure  that  her  helping  would  not 
hurt ;  that  her  giving  would  not  rob ;  that  her  uplift- 
ing would  not  break  down.      She  saw  that  she  must 


WHY  THIS  STUDY?  11 

be  able  to  prove  to  herself  and  to  others  not  only 
that  the  world  is  better  for  her  giving  but  better  in 
proportion  to  her  opportunity  for  giving. 

At  my  first  talk  with  ^rs.  Harriman  regarding 
this  problem  she  stated  that  she  had  been  asking  her- 
self questions  such  as  these :  Is  this  touch  with  hu- 
man need  in  all  corners  of  the  globe  given  me  for  no 
use?  Can  I  do  nothing  but  throw  these  letters  In 
the  waste  basket  merely  because  I  have  neither  facts, 
hours  in  the  day  nor  money  to  determine  where  I  can 
help  without  hurting?  Is  there  any  lesson  in  these 
hundreds  of  appeals  for  me,  for  others  who  want  to 
give  wisely,  for  those  who  ask  and  for  those  who  are 
trying  to  understand,  interpret  and  direct  social 
forces  ? 

To  decide  without  careful  inquiry  which  should 
and  which  should  not  be  answered  would  probably  do 
the  world  infinitely  less  good  than  to  invest  in  pro- 
ductive business,  such  as  the  manufacture  of  paper 
bags  or  shirtwaists  or  music  boxes  or  moving  pic- 
tures, and  would  lead  almost  certainly  to  helping  the 
wrong  persons  and  the  wrong  agencies.  For  exam- 
ple, I  asked  an  assistant,  a  college  graduate  and  also 
a  graduate  of  the  New  York  School  of  Philanthropy, 
to  select  50  letters  which  she  thought  would  require 
immediate  answer  and  would  justify  relief.  Of  her 
50  not  five  seemed  to  me  to  justify  Mrs.  Harriman's 
attention.  Yet  without  study  of  the  individual  con- 
ditions my  assistant's  guess  was  probably  just  as  re- 
liable as  mine. 


12  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

On  the  other  hand,  to  do  nothing  about  these  let- 
ters seemed  intolerable  to  Mrs.  Harriman.  Pastors' 
wives  wrote  her  as  one  worker  to  another.  College 
presidents  wrote  her  as  one  educator  to  another. 
Hundreds  of  individual  stories  ring  true.  There  are 
tragedies  in  homes  and  in  communities ;  destitution 
does  come  because  of  sickness ;  the  lives  of  talented 
men  are  blighted  for  want  of  education;  usurers  do 
take  away  the  borrower's  means  of  livelihood  if  debts 
are  not  paid;  3,000  rocking  chairs  would  give  com- 
fort to  3,000  old  soldiers ;  country  districts  are  in 
need  of  hospitals  and  house  to  house  nurses. 

As  an  experiment  Mrs.  Harriman  sent  100  letters 
to  be  read  and  analyzed  "  for  scientific  purposes 
only."  The  first  100  letters  showed  such  oppor- 
tunity for  scientific  study,  so  many  new  fields  for  giv- 
ing not  yet  entered  by  philanthropy  and  so  many  in- 
dividual cases  of  need  for  which  philanthropy  even  in 
cities  was  not  equipped  to  give  relief,  that  further 
letters  were  sent,  always  for  "  scientific  purposes 
only." 

Gradually  question  took  the  place  of  doubt  and 
conviction  took  the  place  of  question,  and  it  became 
apparent  that  these  letters  of  appeal  contained  les- 
sons altogether  too  important  for  a  waste  basket. 

Why  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  Was 
Enlisted 

For  a  year  prior  to  his  death  Mr.  Harriman  had 
given  much  attention  to  efficiency  in  public  business 


THE  STARTING  POINT  13 

as  a  remedy  for  many  political  and  industrial  evils. 
He  had  addressed  several  audiences  from  the  Pacific 
to  the  Atlantic  coasts  in  support  of  his  proposition 
that  government  should  be  put  on  a  cost  per  ton  mile 
basis  : 

The  railroad  managements  know  what  it 
costs  to  transport  a  ton  of  freight  one  mile  and 
are  governed  accordingly,  and  furthermore, 
they  are  constantly  striving  to  reduce  that  unit 
of  cost.  If  this  principle  were  to  be  applied 
to  the  financial  problems  of  the  government  you 
would  see  a  marvelous  change  within  a  few 
years. 

It  is  time  for  the  people  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion toward  the  regulation  of  the  government. 

Let  them  insist  that  public  officials  shall 
wisely  expend  the  incomes  which  they  now  have 
rather  than  this  constant  seeking  for  larger 
revenue. 

The  last  public  meeting  which  he  attended  was  a  din- 
ner given  by  Mr.  Henry  Phipps  to  30  business  men 
for  consideration  of  the  municipal  research  move- 
ment. At  that  dinner  Mr.  Harriman  had  urged  a 
fi\e  year  guarantee  of  $100,000  a  year  to  insure  the 
continuing  cooperation  of  business  men  with  public 
officials  in  putting  New  York  City  on  a  cost  per  ton 
mile  basis.  The  accountant  and  purchasing  agent 
of  the  Harriman  lines  had  cooperated  in  formulating 
for  New  York  City  the  Bureau's  plans  for  account- 
ing revision.     On  the  day  before  he  sailed  for  Europe 


14  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Mr.  Harriman  had  called  together  a  group  of  finan- 
ciers to  arrange  for  the  underwriting  of  the  Bureau 
guarantee;  gave  interviews  to  a  magazine  and  to 
newspapers,  and  wrote  two  letters  regarding  the  fu- 
ture of  municipal  research. 

Mrs.  Harriman  had  thus  for  months  considered 
from  one  angle  after  another  the  proposition  that 
much  of  the  breakdown  which  creates  the  need  for 
private  philanthropy  is  either  due  to  inefficient  gov- 
ernment agencies  or  must  be  remedied  by  efficient 
government  agencies.  She  wished  the  letters  to  be 
read  from  the  point  of  view  of  government  responsi- 
bility rather  than  private  bounty.  Because  the 
training  of  its  trustees,  directors  and  investigators 
equipped  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  to  look 
at  the  mail  from  both  points  of  view,  the  letters 
were  sent  to  that  Bureau  in  the  hope  that  such 
lessons  as  might  be  gained  from  the  study  would 
be  used  later  to  help  increase  the  efficiency  of  health 
departments,  school  departments,  public  relief  and 
correctional   agencies,   etc. 

The  entire  expense  of  reading,  postage,  stenog- 
raphy, etc,  has  been  borne  by  Mrs  Harriman. 

How  the  Letters  Were  Studied 

There  have  been  several  stages  in  the  study,  each 
next  step  being  taken  experimentally  after  con- 
sultation with  Mrs.  Harriman. 

1.  In  the  first  100  letters  practically  nothing  was 
noted    except   the    purposes    for   which   money   was 


THE  METHOD  OF  STUDY 


15 


asked.  Until  they  had  been  read  it  was  not  proved 
that  "  begging  letters  "  were  material  for  scientific 
analysis. 

2.  We  began  to  record  the  facts  called   for  on 
the  card  here  given: 


n 


STATE  AND  CITY 

OJLa. 


AGE         Education 


BENEFICIARIES 


M 

*    5 


CAUSE  OF  NEED 


REFERENCES 


Business    Difficulty 


X 


PURPOSE  OF  AID  REQUESTED 


Am  t  Requested X^/t  Loan 


X 


v 


/oo 


I 


REMARKS  6<~~<~.    U  cU^a^i/    $C- 


Acknowledged,  referred  lo. 
Letter  lo  school,  health,  chanties,  minister, 
employer.  T    B   Ann.,  other 

No.  of  letters  written 


We  noted  for  each  letter  whether  it  was  written 
by  husband  or  wife,  father,  mother,  son,  daughter, 
grandfather,  friend,  King's  Daughter,  pastor  or 
college  president.  We  put  down  in  whose  behalf 
each  letter  was  written:  whether  for  the  writer's 
family,  for  some  church,  mission,  hospital,  school 
or  for  some  yet-unborn  project  for  the  pub- 
lic good.  If  a  loan  was  requested  it  was  put  down 
in  a  separate  column  from  gifts,  with  the  amount 
of    interest   which   the   writer   wanted   to    pay.     It 


16  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

seemed  important  to  note  separately  whether  aid 
was  wanted  to  pay  off  a  mortgage,  to  start  a  busi- 
ness, to  secure  an  education,  to  pay  doctor's  bills, 
or  for  clothing,  dowries,  or  travel.  So  far  as  the 
causes  of  need  were  described,  they  were  put  down 
too,  such  as  losses  in  speculation,  lack  of  education, 
sickness,  old  age,  or  burdensome  debt  at  impossible 
rates  of  interest. 

When  the  requests  were  for  organized  uplift 
work,  such  as  churches,  hospitals,  missions,  or  col- 
leges, we  noted  who  wrote;  whether  authorized  or 
unauthorized;  official  capacity;  how  much  was 
needed,  if  stated ;  how  much  had  been  obtained  lo- 
cally; how  much  they  wanted  Mrs.  Harriman  to 
give;  the  number  of  people  who  would  benefit  from 
the  gift ;  whether  for  buildings,  equipment,  endow- 
ment, enlarge,  repair,  salaries ;  references ;  other  ef- 
forts to  obtain  funds;  etc.  Where  the  writers  had 
not  specified  the  amount  of  the  gift  desired,  we  did 
our  best  to  estimate  the  minimum  amount  that  the 
writers  would  probably  expect  Mrs.  Harriman  to 
give,  if,  in  view  of  the  circumstances  stated,  she 
should  decide  to  give  anything.  As  the  work  grew 
we  saw  the  need  for  enlarged  and  improved  classifi- 
cation, as  is  always  the  case. 

Thus  far  no  letters  were  answered  and,  with  but 
few  exceptions,  even  enclosures  were  not  returned 
except  where  stamps  were  furnished  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

3.  We  began  to  answer  appeals  from  charitable 


From  a  Church  that  hath — 

this  rectory 


From  Photograph  Enclo*ed  From  Photograph  EncloMd 

APPEALS  WITHOUT  WORDS 


STEPS  IN  THE  STUDY  17 

ncies  and  churches  in  those  instances  irhere  trus- 
ters «>i  bettermenl  work  had  obviously  spent  time 
in  formulating  a  careful  statement  to  Mrs.  Harri- 
inan.  This  was  done  for  two  reasons:  because  they 
would  at  least  appreciate  a  formal  acknowledgment, 
and  because  their  altruistic  purposes  and  their  po- 
sitions entitled  them  to  a  formal  acknowledgment. 

Mrs.  Harriman  wants  you  to  know,  however, 
that  she  is  having  a  study  made  of  some  3,000 
letters  to  learn  what  lesson,  if  any,  they  con- 
tain for  the  country  at  large  and  to  learn  for 
herself  the  most  effective  ways  of  directing  her 
gifts.  She  is  trying  to  have  those  who  appeal 
to  her  appreciate  with  her  how  futile  it  would 
be  for  her  to  try  to  take  the  place  of  local 
hospitals,  schools,  health  departments  or  neigh- 
bors. 

4.  We  tried  personal  answers  to  individual  letter 
writers,  but  before  answers  were  sent  generally  we 
wrote  to  persons  whose  letters  indicated  that  if 
their  facts  were  correct  they  needed  help  at  once 
from  somebody.  We  informed  them  where  —  if  we 
knew  —  in  their  own  localities  they  could  get  help 
from  hospital,  charitable  agency,  church,  etc. 

Mrs.  Harriman  feels  that  one  living  so  far 
away  from  Toledo  cannot  help  you  in  the  best 
way,  and  for  this  reason  wishes  you  to  have  the 
above  address. 

It  might  be  worth  your  while  to  make  inquiry 
at  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  to  learn  if  they  give  a  busi- 


18  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

ness  „  course  .  .  .  also  if  the  evening 
schools  in  Cleveland  have  a  commercial  course. 

The  general  organization  of  your  church  has 
a  fund  established  for  the  care  and  maintenance 
of  retired  ministers. 

Apply  to  the  county  superintendent  of  health 
in  Elkton,  S.  D.,  who  will  be  in  better  position 
to  render  assistance  and  advice  than  anybody 
else. 

In  a  few  instances  letters  were  written  to  charitable 
agencies  or  churches  asking  them  to  look  up  per- 
sons who  said  they  needed  help: 

A  mother  of  three  children  who  wrote  that 
the  furniture  will  be  taken  in  a  few  days  and 
the  children  will  be  homeless  unless  we  can  raise 
$8.75;  ...  a  mother  of  ten  children  from 
six  months  up,  only  two  able  to  work,  school 
will  open  soon  and  I  don't  really  know  what  to 
do  for  shoes  and  clothes;  ...  a  man 
wishing  money  for  board  and  lodging  between 
date  of  engagement  in  new  position  after  an 
accident,  and  the  end  of  the  two  week  period 
when  our  firm  pays. 

Where  the  need  described  seemed  to  call  for  help 
from  public  agencies,  such  as  health  departments, 
school  superintendents,  etc,  we  wrote  to  those  agen- 
cies asking  what  they  were  in  position  to  do  in  their 
communities  for  certain  hypothetical  cases  cited. 
A  prison  board  was  asked  if  a  prisoner  needed 
$5,000  to  prove  whether  he  had  been  railroaded  to 


STEPS  IN  THE  STUDY  19 

prison.  The  state  health  secretary  of  Michigan 
was  asked  what  help  a  person  suffering  from  tuber- 
culosis in  an  outlying  district  of  Michigan  would 
receive.  The  state  secretary  of  health  of  Minne- 
sota was  asked  what,  if  anything,  could  be  done  for 
a  feeble  minded  child  in  a  small  town.  Replies 
enabled  us  to  help;  for  example,  we  could  tell  a 
young  woman  in  Oklahoma  who  has  been  helpless 
lying  on  her  back  from  what  the  doctors  call  bone 
disease  that  there  was  a  hospital  much  nearer  than 
St.  Louis  or  Chicago,  and  put  her  in  touch  with  her 
state  health  officer. 

Where  school  children  were  involved,  except  in 
cities  known  to  have  charitable  agencies,  we  wrote 
to  the  school  superintendents.  For  example,  the 
superintendent  of  schools  in  Rome,  Georgia,  was 
asked  if  it  was  necessary  for  the  mother  of  two  chil- 
dren to  apply  outside  of  Rome  for  shoes  and  cloth- 
ing that  her  children  might  attend  school. 

Where  needs  for  adults  were  involved  we  wrote 
to  the  health  officer,  if  the  city  was  large  enough  to 
have  a  health  department,  and  for  small  communi- 
ties we  wrote  to  the  mayor.  Where  church  connec- 
tions were  mentioned  we  wrote  to  the  minister. 
Upon  receiving  word  that  local  agencies  were  pre- 
pared to  give  the  kind  of  help  called  for  we  re- 
ferred the  appealer  to  that  agency.  The  practice, 
however,  has  been  not  to  send  the  name  of  a  letter 
writer  to  a  charitable  agency  or  other  person. 

In  numerous  instances  help  was  secured.     In  how 


20  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

many  we  do  not  know  because  we  have  not  under- 
taken what  we  believe  the  proposed  clearing  house 
for  handling  such  material  should  undertake, 
namely,  to  follow  up  such  correspondence  until  it 
is  proved  either  that  the  statement  of  need  was  in- 
correct or  that  necessary  relief  has  been  given. 
The  reason  for  not  doing  that  in  this  instance  is 
that  we  have  been  conducting  a  study  and  not  a 
propaganda.  We  have  proved  that  local  private 
relief  agencies,  hospitals,  schools  and  health  de- 
partments profess  to  prefer  to  take  care  of  their 
local  problems  with  local  funds  and  profess  to  wel- 
come references  of  such  problems  from  New  York. 
5.  We  began  to  send  out  some  acknowledgment 
to  every  person  writing,  on  the  theory  that  it  was 
worth  the  ten  or  twenty  cents  it  would  cost  to  tell 
that  person  of  our  study  and  its  purpose.  After  all, 
what  better  machinery  of  straight  thinking  about 
local  responsibility  for  local  needs  is  there  than  the 
person  who  writes  to  you  for  help?  The  woman 
who  writes  from  Boulder,  Colorado,  to  a  rich  man 
in  Chicago  or  New  York  will  keep  on  thinking  that 
she  ought  to  have  an  answer,  and  that  she  ought  to 
have  a  favorable  answer,  unless  somebody  convinces 
her  that  she  is  wrong.  So  long  as  she  is  laboring 
under  the  impression  that  the  way  to  cure  her  diffi- 
culty is  to  attract  the  attention  of  somebody  3,000 
miles  away  she  is  a  source  of  infection-misinfor- 
mation. We  have  been  sending  out  the  following 
slip  marked  to  note  the  special  kind  of  aid  requested : 


A  WORD  TO  APPEALERS  21 


"THE    GREATEST    INTEREST    OF    EACH    OF 
I  S  IS  THE  COMMON  INTEREST  OF  ALL  OF   US  " 

(Confidential) 


Six  thousand  letters  asking  Mrs.  E.  H.  Harri- 
man  in  two  years  for  $267,000,000  have  been  studied  to 
see  what  lessons,  if  any,  they  contained  for  Mrs.  Har- 
riman,  for  other  givers,  or  for  those  who  appealed. 

Requests  are  mainly  for  (a)  help  to  secure  an 
education,  (b)  loans  to  raise  mortgages,  to  start  in 
business,  or  to  purchase  a  home,  (c)  help  to  recuper- 
ate losses  sustained  through  illness  or  other  catastro- 
phes, and  (d)  churches,  colleges  and  other  uplift  agen- 
cies. Few  persons  asked  for  enough  to  do  all  they 
wanted  to  do. 

To  have  given  $267,000,000  as  requested  would 
in  most  instances  have  done  more  harm  than  good. 
No  person  has  any  right  to  give  money  in  a  way  that 
hurts  others.  Nor  has  anyone  the  right  to  try  to 
help  others  unintelligently. 

Local  resources  can  almost  invariably  be  found 
or  developed  to  take  care  of  local  troubles.  The 
mayor,  health  officer  and  school  superintendent  of  a 
city  can  do  far  more  than  a  person  living  at  a  great 
distance.  Individual  cases  called  to  their  attention 
may  be  the  means  of  interesting  whole  communities 
in  providing  ample  means  of  relief  for  all  their  mem- 
bers. 

Means  of  earning  one's  way  through  school 
or  college  are  constantly  increasing.  The  president 
or  dean  of  the  nearest  college  will  suggest  means. 

Banks  and  private  loan  companies  lend  money 
on  real  and  personal  property.  Business  men  often 
invest  money  in  mortgages,  and  make  loans  to  reli- 
able persons  to  start  in  business,  or  tide  over  periods 
of  misfortune.  Building  and  loan  associations  make 
it  easy  to  own  a  home. 

Hospitals  offer  the  best  and  safest  care  in  case 
of  illness,  or  the  health  officer  in  charge  may  be  con- 
sulted. Cases  of  tuberculosis  should  always  be  re- 
ported to  the  local  authorities. 

The  most  lasting  benefit  to  all  will  be  derived 
from  consulting  those  especially  charged  by  the  com- 
munity— viz.  the  government  supported  by  taxes — 
with  the  responsibilities  of  public  education,  public 
health  and  the  general  welfare. 


22  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

With  this  slip  has  usually  gone  some  personal  word : 

I  am  .  .  .  enclosing  .  .  .  statement 
about  the  benefit  of  fresh  air  to  delicate  chil- 
dren just  to  show  you  that  your  sister  can  ob- 
tain all  the  fresh  air  necessary  in  your  yard. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  have  a  pony  and  cart  to 
take  her  out  in  the  fresh  air.     .     .     . 

Your  letter  is  but  part  of  a  series  of  letters 

written   by   and   for   Miss   for   different 

amounts  at  different  times.  If  your  interest 
continues,  will  you  be  good  enough  to  look  at 
the  letters  she  has  received  from  us  relative  to 
her  numerous  letters?  You  will  be  convinced, 
I  am  sure,  that  every  effort  has  been  made  to 
deal  sympathetically  with  this  matter  and  also 

that   the   particular  way   in  which   Miss   

wishes  help  is  in  all  likelihood  the  unkindest  way 
in  which  anyone  could  serve  her.  (The  min- 
ister replied  that  he  really  did  not  know  her.) 

Several  friends  advised  against  acknowledging  ap- 
peals on  the  ground  that  it  would  lead  to  an  in- 
creased number  of  communications  certain  to  annoy. 
One  cited  Charles  Dickens'  penalty  for  telling  the 
public  that  the  two  Cheeryble  brothers  in  "  Nicholas 
Nickleby  "  were  not  myths  of  his  imagination  but 
men  he  knew  personally,  "  For  the  next  six  months 
my  life  was  made  miserable  by  importunate  letters 
asking  me  to  disclose  the  address  of  the  brothers  or 
to  forward  them  letters."  Yet  not  one  in  one 
hundred  appealers  has  apparently  failed  to  "  catch 
the  point "  of  our  effort  to  interest  them  in  the  al- 


STEPS  IN  THE  STUDY  M 

ternatives  presented  to  rich  people,  and  in  the  les- 
sons taught  by  these  letters  for  better  cooperation 
of  citizens  —  including  the  sick  and  the  needy  — 
with  themselves  and  with  government  in  uplift  work 
on  a  large  scale. 

6.  Gradually  as  we  saw  the  results  of  suggestions 
we  ventured  to  make  them  to  organized  agencies. 
We  began  by  calling  attention  to  obstructions  raised 
in  an  appeal  itself  to  a  responsive  reading;  for  ex- 
ample (a)  inserting  intimate  greeting  and  conclu- 
sion in  an  obviously  circular  letter;  (b)  failing 
to  give  any  idea  of  the  amount  of  money  needed,  or 
the  nature  of  the  work;  (c)  writing  for  purposes 
known  to  have  been  adequately  provided  for.  But 
this  we  did  quite  sparingly  and  only  where  there 
was  reason  to  believe  that  suggestion  would  be  wel- 
comed. Responses  have  proved  that  suggestions 
may  be  more  helpful  than  money,  because  they  help 
get  more  money  or  prove  money  unnecessary.  At 
first  we  used  blank  envelopes  and  blank  paper;  later 
the  following  heading: 

The    Greatest    Interest    of    Each    of   Us 
Is   the   Common   Interest   of   All   of   Us 

Most  of  the  answers  to  personal  letters  have  been 
signed  by  whoever  had  the  details  of  the  investiga- 
tion in  charge.  I  signed  those  where  later  corre- 
spondence might  make  it  important  to  locate  re- 
sponsibility with  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research, 
such  as  two  or  three  rebukes  to  young  men  asking 


24  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

for  help   and   several  cases   of  persons  writing  im- 
portunities bordering  on  threats : 

The  worst  possible  thing  that  could  happen 
to  a  young  man  wishing  an  education  would  be 
for  some  stranger  to  respond  to  a  letter  such 
as  yours  to  Mrs.  Harriman.  You  misspelled 
her  name,  you  addressed  her  at  the  wrong 
place,  you  misspelled  a  number  of  words  which 
indicate  carelessness,  not  lack  of  opportunity, 
such  as  "  hearte  "  and  "  streach  *  and  "  fil- 
full"  Count  the  time  that  it  takes  to  write  a 
letter  like  this,  then  think  it  over  and  see 
whether  you  believe  it  is  fair  to  ask  a  busy  per- 
son in  another  city  to  read  a  letter  which  you 
have  not  taken  pains  to  write  as  carefully  as 
you  know  how. 

In  your  case  I  am  sure  she  would  wish  a  let- 
ter sent  in  the  hope  of  enabling  you  to  see  how 
incompatible  with  the  facts  in  your  letter  is 
your  present  talk  of  love  and  duty.  As  I  take 
it,  in  spite  of  your  familiarity  with  the  history 
of  Wall  Street  and  the  jokes  about  lambs  and 
wool,  etc,  you  so  forget  yourself  as  to  bet  on 
another  man's  game  and  with  another  person's 
money  —  that  other  person  being  your  own 
mother. 

I  am  not  commissioned  to  speak  for  Mrs. 
Harriman,  but  if  there  is  any  one  thing  she  can 
be  counted  upon  never  to  do  it  is  to  bear  the 
slightest  responsibility  for  such  an  act  as  you 
propose.  I  am  sure  she  would  say  that  in  the 
long  run  the  kindest  thing  for  any  man  to  do 
for  his  mother  is  to  confess  the  facts  in  a  case 


STEPS  IN  THE  STUDY  25 

like  this,  and  let  her  knowledge  help  him  keep 
true  to  the  line  in  the  future. 

For  someone  else  to  pay  the  penalty  for  your 
act,  and  to  help  cover  it  up,  would,  if  history 
tells  the  truth,  only  result  in  encouraging  fu- 
ture weakness. 

Would  your  bishop  call  your  reference  to 
laborers  "  who  are  now  too  strong  to  ignore  n 
a  threat  or  an  indiscretion?  If  someone  were 
to  write  you  "  /  do  not  suppose  that  the  truth 
is  often  told  you "  would  you  dig  down  into 
your  pocket  at  once  and  give  him  a  letter  of 
recommendation  and  a  check?  .  .  .  After 
you  have  heard,  as  your  letter  shows,  that  Mrs. 
Harriman  is  receiving  letters  by  the  thousand 
and  is  having  them  read  for  her  (after,  how- 
ever, she  has  read  most  of  them  herself),  should 
Mrs.  Harriman  be  surprised  to  receive  a  letter 
from  a  churchman  asking  help  for  a  church  in 
an  envelope  marked  Private?  Do  you,  as  a 
Christian  minister,  seriously  mean  to  imply 
that  Mrs.  Harriman's  failure  to  comply  with 
your  appeal  would  be  treating  your  hundreds 
of  people  with  contempt? 

In  asking  charitable  agencies  for  information  we 
have,  as  a  rule,  used  a  modified  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research  letterhead,   without  names: 

BUREAU  OF  MUNICIPAL  RESEARCH 

purpose:     to  secure  constructive  publicity  in 
matters    pertaining    to    municipal    problems 


THE    GREATEST    INTEREST   OF   EACH    OF   US 
IS   THE    COMMON    INTEREST   OF    ALL    OF    US  n 


261   Broadway,  New  York 


26 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


Most  of  these  letters  I  signed.  In  dealing  with 
state  and  city  officers  the  Bureau's  letterhead  has 
always  been  used,  partly  because  we  wanted  to  lo- 
cate responsibility  and  partly  to  afford  occasion 
to  emphasize  the  government  aspect  and  govern- 
ment responsibility  for  meeting  such  needs  as  are 
brought  to  the  attention  by  appealing  letters. 

In  reviewing  the  work  of  readers  it  was  necessary, 
as  it  will  be  in  a  clearing  house  if  established  (see 
Part  III),  to  check  over  not  only  the  estimates  of 
amounts  but  the  character  of  answer.  For  exam- 
ple, the  cards  in  our  files  will  show  notes  like  the 
following  made  by  me  upon  review: 

Did  you  look  this  up?;  Follow  up;  Not  enough 
for  such  case ;  Get  reference  in  nearby  city ; 
What  basis  here?;  Not  enough  in  New  York; 
Would  not  letter  have  been  better? 

As  our  particular  study  was  for  purposes  of  analy- 
sis, not  for  treatment,  there  was  much  less  of  this 
supervision  than  the  letters  warranted. 


^  Post  Card— Postkarl 

yCf  K^~1  *JXJ$' 


What  3,000   Individuals  Wanted 

They  wanted  $22,000,000. 

i, 800  wanted  outright  gifts  of  $8,000,000: 
$100  for  an  artificial  leg  for  neighbor's  boy;  two 
artificial  legs  each  for  two  different  men ;  money  to 
put  artificial  leg  on  the  market;  $20  to  attend  re- 
union of  Confederate  soldiers ;  passes ;  pensions ; 
trusses;  $25  to  pay  for  copyright  of  drama;  a 
tombstone  so  expensive  and  I  am  unable  to  do  much, 
still  it  is  a  sacred  duty;  to  help  a  fine  firm  with  a 
crook  at  the  head  of  it  get  the  crook  out;  insur- 
ance money ;  a  new  summer  dress  for  a  young  girl 
who  has  not  had  one  for  five  years  and  who  cares 
for  her  crippled  uncle;  $50  to  carry  out  a  plan  to 
stop  a  family  of  12  children  from  tormenting  their 
neighbors ;  copy  of  a  newspaper  to  be  sent  to 
prison;  scoop  on  Harriman  news  for  woman  re- 
porter; trousseau;  pin  money  for  woman  of  60 
whose  husband  will  not  give  her  any  money;  $3,000 
to  save  home  of  a  city  official  who  admits  she  is  a 
thirty-two  years  old  maid;  admission  fee  to  old 
folks'  home;  to  be  made  independent  of  children 
who  treat  me  worse  than  a  poor  house;  to  keep 
homes  together  for  widows  or  for  families  where 
fathers  are  in  an  asylum,  jail  or  hospital;  money 
to  take  girl  several  hundred  miles  to  where  her 
sweetheart  is  in  a  hospital;  money  to  make  mother 

27 


m  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

of  a  woman  of  thirty  independent  so  that  the  woman 
herself  can  marry  a  man  with  whom  I  am  keeping 
company  who  must  support  his  own  mother;  money 
to  visit  81  year  old  mother  in  Germany;  out  of  style 
clothing ;  oranges  and  peanuts  for  sick  daughter ; 
$25  to  celebrate  25th  wedding  anniversary  —  man 
earning  $65  per  month ;  $50  to  purchase  a  much  de- 
sired gift  for  a  friend;  a  few  simple  pretty  clothes 
for  a  girl  of  22  who  says  Do  you  blame  me  for  not 
wanting  to  marry  him  when  he  is  wealthy  unless  I 
have  them?;  magazine  subscription  for  a  cripple; 
souvenir  post  card  and  autograph  for  a  little  blind 
boy  who  is  making  an  album  to  entertain  his  vis- 
itors;  help  and  protection  for  a  young  daughter 
coming  to  New  York  City;  merely  the  gift  of  an 
automobile  for  my  aged  mother  and  myself  which 
would  be  nothing  in  your  sight;  $4-00  in  the  Lord's 
name  for  a  minister  whose  present  automobile  is 
worn  out 

617  wanted  loans  of  $5,000,000:  Some  with  and 
without  security,  with  and  without  interest,  at, 
above  and  below  prevailing  rates ;  a  woman 
who  needs  $150  because  of  a  sudden  affliction, 
will  return  it  at  $5  a  month;  an  Arizona 
farmer  compelled  to  mortgage  land  because  of 
his  wife's  sickness  is  paying  interest  on  $2,500 
at  the  rate  of  10%  semi-annually,  which  is  $150 
a  year  more  than  the  investor  of  $2,500  in  New 
York  City's  bonds  will  receive;  a  woman  now  72 
years  of  age  and  of  course  unable  to  earn  my  liv- 


WHAT   INDIVIDUALS  WANTED         M 

Img  in  an  if  way,  is  left  a  home  and  should  like  to 
remain  in  the  home  an  til  the  end.  The  place  was 
appraised  at  $9,000  some  years  ago  .  .  .  in 
a  desirable  location  and  free  of  any  assessment.  I 
have  been  adzised  to  ask  of  you  a  loan  of  $8,000 
or  $9,000.  At  my  death  I  sacrifice  my  home.  A 
library  worth  $1,000  for  a  year  in  Europe,  farms, 
equity  on  city  property,  insurance  policies,  busi- 
ness shares,  oil  mines,  wages  are  offered  as  security. 
Many  say  that  they  dare  not  go  to  the  loan  com- 
panies because  they  ask  so  much  interest 

216  offered  to  sell  articles  and  property  for 
$8,000,000:  House;  robe  made  of  Arctic  eagles' 
breasts;  home  and  land;  picture  of  Betsey  Ross; 
farm ;  tapestries  ;  magazine  subscriptions  ;  peomes; 
needle  case;  hand  made  doilies;  heirloom  watch; 
evening  gown,  embroidered;  point  lace  handker- 
chief; old  coins;  lace;  Paisley  shawl;  lace  spread; 
old  collection  of  hymns  printed  by  John  Wesley  in 
1799 ;  Bible,  1847 ;  crazy  patch  silk  quilt,  lined  with 
red  plush,  which  would  make  a  lovely  slumber  robe 
for  the  new  grandchild;  gun  carried  in  Revolution- 
ary war;  horn  that  was  taken  from  the  head  of  a 
steer  that  was  eat  for  breakfast  by  a  company  of 
Virginia  soldiers;  Strad  rosewood  violin,  said  to 
be  worth  $50,000;  a  very  old  Hope  violin;  stamp 
collections;  black  pearl;  books;  newspaper  sub- 
scriptions in  trip-to-Europe  and  piano  contests; 
musical  stenography  invention ;  fire  escapes ;  devices 
for  preventing  collisions 


30  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

238  requested  employment,  influence  in  se- 
curing employment,  advice,  "  tips "  for  invest- 
ments, etc :  To  hold  4,000  shares  of  ......  com- 
pany for  30  point  rise  to  recoup  loss  of  $135,000 ; 
$1,400  to  make  good  loss  in  a  bank  failure  set 
aside  for  debts  on  a  house  by  mother  driven  almost 
insane;  tips  on  the  market  or  money  to  back  tips ; 
to  be  recommended  to  a  firm  that  is  looking  for  a 
young  man  who  is  tall,  very  neat  and  educated; 
legal  aid;  help  and  protection  for  a  young  daugh- 
ter coming  to  the  city;  help  in  selling  Los  Angeles 
property  for  use  for  charitable  purposes;  help  in 
selling  Baltimore  property  worth  $200,000  to  fur- 
ther suggestive  therapeutics;  help  in  investing  in- 
surance money  to  make  enough  to  send  daughter  to 
music  school;  work  in  Pullman  car;  numerous  jobs 
on  railroads ;  employment  for  persons  losing  po- 
litical position.  Those  who  write  A  word  from 
you  would  perhaps  be  the  making  of  a  career  little 
realize  the  speed  with  which  any  person's  creden- 
tials would  go  to  protest  if  influence  were  used  in- 
discriminately 

330  individuals  wanted  $5,000,000  for  busi- 
ness capital:  To  back  financially  a  book  on  the 
silly  age  of  boys  and  girls;  children's  game;  per- 
petual motion  machine ;  cancer  cures ;  popular  song ; 
cemetery;  aeroplane  —  a  tool  of  flying;  new  form 
of  locomotive  of  which  your  womanly  intuition  will 
teach  you  to  grasp  the  merits;  publish  letters  by  one 
of  the  forty-niners  who  all  the  time  he  was  in  Call- 


WHAT  INDIVIDUALS  WANTED         31 

fornia  sent  home  letters  descriptive  of  those  early 
days;  $1,500  to  go  to  British  Museum  to  complete 
a  book  on  sculpture;  $500  to  complete  a  scientific 
book;  money  to  study  to  be  a  kinematics  doctor, 
minister,  hairdresser,  dentist,  violinist,  physician, 
opera  singer,  drum  player,  chauffeur,  osteopath, 
house  economist,  orator;  to  enable  soldier  of  for- 
tune who  knows  men  pretty  well  to  describe  many 
of  the  strange  pathetic  reasons  for  many  men  be- 
ing failures 

500  wanted  $1,500,000  for  the  purchase  of 
homes  or  farms  or  other  forms  of  property: 
$5,000  to  buy  a  house  because  m  this  house  a  self- 
respecting  darkey  wouldn't  want  to  live;  a  farm 
near  New  York  or  Florida;  help  to  get  on  feet 
again  after  loss  of  three  horses  and  illness  of  hus- 
band; $1,500  to  save  a  fruit  farm  which  owner  will 
gladly  name  Harriman  Fruit  Farm;  garden  enough 
to  make  a  living;  money  to  buy  back  a  barber  shop 
for  selling  which  to  pay  his  debts  the  writer  re- 
morses greatly;  capital  so  that  I  may  turn  my  bach 
upon  cruel  poverty,  set  myself  in  the  land  of  pros- 
perity and  become  a  figure  in  the  business  world 

260  wanted  $120,000  for  medical  care,  helping 
convalescents,  vacations,  etc:  Medical  treatment 
for  every  conceivable  ailment:  deafness,  blindness, 
orthopedic  defects,  tuberculosis,  cancer,  infantile 
paralysis,  nervous  prostration ;  enough  to  pay  a 
week's  or  ten  days'  board  for  a  man  about  to  leave 
infirmary;  $75  for  girl  of  16  to  fix  brother's  teeth; 


32  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

$50  to  maintain  painter  outside  of  poorhouse  hos- 
pital until  his  broken  leg  is  recovered  and  he  is  able 
to  work  (how  many  social  workers  or  teachers 
could  keep  out  of  the  poorhouse  if  they  broke  a 
leg?)  ;  to  obey  doctor's  orders  for  extra  diet,  At- 
lantic City,  etc;  $100  to  restore  mother's  sight;  a 
pair  of  spectacles;  ear  drums;  treatment  of  alco- 
holism so  that  wife  will  return;  attendant  for  aged 
husband;  $500  to  restore  hearing  to  a  girl  who  de- 
clines to  be  married  until  she  is  cured,  whose  fiance 
tries  to  write  about  it  without  any  consideration  of 
personal  relations  or  friendship 

What  Children  Write 

Among  the  wonder  tales  that  compete  with  my- 
thology and  science  in  appealing  to  the  child  imag- 
ination are  those  of  American  men  and  women  who 
are  rich  not  only  beyond  the  "  dreams  of  avarice  " 
but  beyond  even  child  credulity.  After  a  boy  has 
been  good  a  whole  week  for  five  cents,  or  has  driven 
old  Brindle  to  and  from  pasture  all  summer  long 
for  50  cents,  or  has  run  3,714  errands  for  25  cents, 
it  is  no  simple  thing  to  believe  that  there  are  really 
truly  people  in  the  world  whose  income  if  divided 
into  ten  dollar  bills  he  could  not  count  as  fast  as 
it  piles  up. 

Compared  with  what  American  millionaires  can 
do  and  get  done  with  their  money,  how  feeble 
indeed  are  the  stories  of  fairy  land,  Croesus 
or  Aladdin's  Lamp.     Just  think  of  it!     Laid  side 


WHAT  CHILDREN  WROTE  33 

by  side  in  quarters  the  small  part  of  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller's fortune  which  he  has  already  given  to  the 
General  Education  Board  would  reach  from  New 
York  to  Washington!  If  Mr.  Carnegie's  income 
were  to  pour  upon  him  in  five  dollar  gold  pieces,  and 
if  his  life  depended  upon  his  shovelling  the  coins 
away  for  breathing  space,  he  would  quickly  smother. 

Since  several  million  children  in  the  United  States 
have  read  stories  reporting  Mrs.  Harriman  to  be 
on  the  point  of  giving  away  several  million  dollars, 
it  would  not  be  surprising  if  several  thousand  of 
them  had  written  to  her.  What  myriads  of  won- 
ders possible  and  impossible  would  our  children  like 
to  bring  about! 

Yet  not  100  children  have  written  and  most  of 
these  sent  Christmas  cards  of  greetings  and  best 
wishes.  Not  25  wrote  on  their  own  initiative  for 
money  or  other  help.  Most  of  the  letters  purport- 
ing to  come  from  children  have  about  them  the  ring 
of  grown  up  prompting,  as,  for  example,  You,  a 
woman,  have  a  better  heart  for  giving  than  a 
man. 

Is  this  because  children  do  not  really  write  let- 
ters? Hardly,  as  advertisers  in  magazines  will  tes- 
tify. Teachers,  too,  know  how  easy  it  is  for  chil- 
dren to  write  letters  if  they  want  to  and  if  an  air 
of  secrecy  and  mystery  surrounds  the  writing. 

Three  explanations  have  occurred  to  me  why  not 
one  child  has  written  Mrs.  Harriman,  where  a  mil- 
lion have  read  of  her  interest  in  children.     The  first 


34  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

is  that  a  normal  child  feels  more  like  giving  pres- 
ents to  those  whom  he  admires  or  envies  than  like 
asking  for  them.  The  second  reason  is  that  it  is 
unnatural  and  contrary  to  his  teaching  for  an  Amer- 
ican child  to  ask  for  something  from  a  person  with 
whom  he  is  not  acquainted  and  upon  whom  he  has 
no  claim. 

It  is  more  than  possible  that  the  Wright  Broth- 
ers or  Inventor  Edison  or  many  baseball  and  foot 
ball  players  and  pugilists  have  received  vastly  more 
letters  from  American  boys  than  have  Mrs.  Harri- 
man,  Mr.  Rockefeller,  Mr.  Carnegie  and  Mrs.  Sage 
combined.  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox  and  Marion  Har- 
land  have  received  more  letters  from  American  girls 
than  have  all  the  world's  great  philanthropists. 
The  picture  of  what  they  themselves  would  do  with 
millions  is  all  that  American  boys  and  girls  are 
conscious  of  wanting  from  the  American  millionaire. 
(Only  his  reputation  for  anonymous,  personal,  suit- 
able dealing  brings  Santa  Claus  so  many  requests 
from  children.) 

The  third  reason  is  that  with  children  sufficient 
unto  the  day  is  the  evil  —  and  the  pleasure  — 
thereof.  I  think  we  should  be  grateful  for  this  be- 
cause nothing  would  be  more  demoralizing  than  to 
have  the  nation's  children  wishing  for  money  and 
for  gifts  rather  than  for  power  to  make  their  own 
way. 

But  what  children  do  not  write  to  philanthropists 
and  to  not-yet-philanthropists  among  our  million- 
aires is  a  very  important  matter.     The  future  of 


CHILD  THOUGHT  ABOUT  GIVING      35 

the  country's  problems  and  efforts  is  profoundly 
affected  by  what  a  child  thinks  when  told  of  mil- 
lions given  for  education  or  efficient  government  and 
of  other  millions  wasted  in  riotous  living. 

What  Foreigners  Ask  For 
Foreign  personal  appeals  were  more  mendicant, 
perhaps  because  the  writers  had  less  expectation 
of  an  answer,  more  experience  in  begging  letter 
writing,  more  of  the  lottery  instinct  or  less  respect 
for  American  wealth. 

Besides  the  customary  appeals  for  help  of  every 
conceivable  description,  they  asked  for  money  to 
pay  gambling  debts ;  to  start  up  as  housekeeper  a 
nobleman's  widow;  to  furnish  a  traveling  outfit;  to 
start  a  newspaper;  to  cure  face  disfigurement;  to 
cure  enmity  between  husband  and  wife  caused  by 
lack  of  money;  to  stock  a  tobacco  store;  to  give 
dowries  to  numerous  girls  in  love  with  officers ;  to 
educate  a  daughter  who  is  like  a  violet  in  conceal- 
ment;  to  support  a  man  whose  character  is  without 
a  blemish,  have  never  earned  a  dollar. 

There  were  few  requests  for  established  philan- 
thropic agencies,  but  interesting  suggestions  to  es- 
tablish courses  in  midwifery ;  to  endow  a  humani- 
tarian institute  for  the  study  and  cure  of  sterility; 
to  finance  power  to  heal  burns;  to  popularize  travel 
and  fill  English  railroad  cars;  to  establish  self  sup- 
porting cooperative  stores  for  servants,  the  proceeds 
to  be  used  in  maintaining  club  houses,  dance  halls, 
reading  rooms,  etc. 


36  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

As  did  the  domestic  letters,  the  foreign  appeals 
want  only  what  Mrs.  Harriman  would  never  miss, 
e.g.,  10,000  francs,  to  you  only  as  the  penny  I 
throw  to  a  strolling  musician. 

Because  these  letters  promised  to  be  less  helpful, 
Mrs.  Harriman  directed  that  no  acknowledgment  be 
sent,  except  to  return  enclosures. 

What  the  Organized  Agencies  Wanted 

They  wanted  $207,000,000. 

We  noted  whether  the  amount  requested  was  for 
a  gift  or  a  loan  and  whether  it  was  stated  by  the 
writer  or  estimated  by  us. 

Our  totals  are  often  larger  than  the  chance 
reader,  or  the  writers  themselves,  would  give.  "  En- 
tering wedges  "  are  seldom  estimated  at  their  real 
cost  even  by  social  workers  or  public  officers  wish- 
ing to  start  new  public  activities.  When  a  letter 
asks  for  endowment  of  a  bed,  college  professorship 
or  church,  we  have  computed  the  amount  of  money 
actually  required  to  support  the  work  mentioned, 
i.e.,  if  it  costs  $2.00  a  day,  or  $730  a  year,  to  main- 
tain a  patient  in  a  hospital,  endowing  a  bed  in  that 
hospital  means  not  $1,000  but  $14,600.  Likewise, 
when  a  Kentucky  girl  admits  having  extraordinary 
beauty  and  an  exceptional  voice  worth  training  two 
years  in  New  York  and  two  years  in  Europe,  we 
have  put  down  not  some  generous  first  contribution 
of  $100  or  $500,  but  the  estimated  cost  of  four 
years'  instruction  in  music  plus  living  in  New  York 
and  Paris.     When  people  beg  an  atomizer  to  put 


WHAT  ORGANIZATIONS  WANTED      37 

out  a  conflagration,  we  have  estimated  money  for 
a  fire  engine,  not  an  atomizer.  This  point  of  view 
has  recently  been  exploited  through  a  peripatetic 
joke  which  pictures  a  disconsolate  individual  who, 
when  asked  how  he  could  be  unhappy  when  his  father 
had  given  him  an  automobile,  replied :  "  Yes,  he 
gave  it  to  me,  but  he  didn't  endow  it." 

To  list  the  activities  under  this  head  would  re- 
quire a  charities  directory.  In  amounts  running 
from  what  the  heart  prompts,  to  $10,  to  money  to 
help  along,  to  millions,  institutions  ask  to  be  mort- 
gaged and  unmortgaged,  launched,  built,  repaired 
and  maintained,  endowed,  insured,  rented,  painted, 
beautified,  named,  visited. 


One  Dollar 
Merry  Go  Round 

An(W  a/£>  ColI5cting/or  the 


ZlAdHLi 


Put  Dimes  in  £he  holes,  seal 
them  up  jindi  send  me  to 


58  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Similarities  are  more  numerous  than  dissimilari- 
ties in  tone,  technique,  methods  of  approach,  ex- 
cept that  agencies  which  have  no  buildings  to  main- 
tain seem  to  long  for  further  worlds  to  conquer 
more  than  do  stationary  institutions, —  only  little 
worlds  at  a  time,  however,  for  what  the  university 
extension  society  would  consider  a  fortune  the  real 
university  considers  an  appetizer. 

Since  reading  "  grandmother  letters "  I  have 
stopped  writing  timely  appeals.  To  one  college 
president  who  sent  one  of  the  very  best  analogous 
plans  that  followed  the  announcement  of  the  Train- 
ing School  for  Public  Service,  I  wrote: 

We  do  not  know  what  disposition  Mrs.  Har- 
riman  makes  of  letters.  We  never  ask,  and  do 
not  feel  free  to  do  so  now.  May  I  go  beyond 
my  commission,  however,  to  suggest  that  Mrs. 
Harriman  has  so  recently  given  a  great  deal  of 
time  and  thought  to  our  local  Training  School 
for  Public  Service,  and  is  still  so  engaged  in 
planning  for  its  working  out  that  she  will  prob- 
ably find  it  difficult  to  take  the  time  to  consider 
your  proposition?  As  you  know,  this  means 
nothing  of  itself,  except  that  you  are  perhaps  a 
little  "  prompt." 

Acting  upon  "  cues  "  is  sometimes  a  sign  of  high 
powers  of  coordination  and  sometimes  a  mere  evi- 
dence of  primitive  "  law  of  association."  News- 
paper mention  of  a  training  school  causes  a  verita- 
ble epidemic  of  training  school  plans.     This  is  as  it 


WHAT  ORGANIZATIONS  WANTED      39 


should  be.  That  is  why  people  were  given  minds 
instead  of  sponges.  Action  should  follow  "  cues," 
but  thought  should  precede  action,  and  people  should 
be  sure  that  they  have  the  whole  of  the  cue  or  all 
the  cues  known.  As  one  large  donor's  secretary 
says :  "  People  no  sooner  become  interested  in  tid- 
dle-dee-winks  than  they  ask  us  for  money  to  start 
a  training  school  for  teachers  of  tiddle-dee-winks." 
To  one  appeal  for  funds  to  nationalize  a  form  of 
social  work,  I  made  one  or  two  suggestions: 


Do  you  make  it  clear  that  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars   is  needed  to  endow   the  chair? 

Would  not  your  suggestion,  that  the  department 
should  be  named  for  the  donor,  frighten  many 
people  ? 

Do  not  many  people  believe  that  a  peripatetic 
chair  is  better  than  a  stationary  one? 

Have  you  assurance  that  the  University  would 
welcome  such  a  chair  and  the  courses  it  pre- 
sumes ? 

Would  not  anybody  on  the  point  of  giving  you 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  wish  to  know  a 
great  deal  more  of  this  work  than  your  inter- 
esting letter  conveys? 

Would  that  person  not  expect  you  to  explain  why 
the  board  of  education  is  not  under  this  load? 

Would  it  not  strengthen  your  appeal  if  you  did 
not  suggest  a  candidate  (son)  for  the  endow- 
ment income? 

Everyone    (if   he    is   efficient)    tries    to   hitch   his 
wagon  to  the  particular  star  that  happens  to  be  in 


40  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

the  ascendant  either  in  the  receiver's  mind  or  in  the 
public's  mind.  This  is  splendid  pedagogics  or  sales- 
manship. The  trouble  is,  hundreds  of  others  try  to 
hitch  to  that  same  star  first.  Public  calamities  are 
used  to  point  a  moral,  arrest  attention  and  illustrate 
every  type  of  social  work.  The  Washington  Place 
fire  in  New  York  is  used  as  an  unanswerable  proof 
that  child  oyster  openers  in  Florida  need  protec- 
tion, that  tax  reform  is  necessary  and  a  church 
home  for  boys  indispensable. 


had     you    saved    the   (TjgP*  (Child  laborers) 

LITTLE    GIRLS  ^"^ 


SEE  THE  LETTER  ON 
PAGE  TWO  THAT  GOVERNOR 
WOODROW  WILSON  SAYS 
YOU    SHOULD    READ. 


(Burned  in  fire)  ^&J  YOU    would    not    now 

HAVE    TO    MOURN    A 
LOSS    LIKE    THIS 


Churches  emphasize  their  educational  and  social 
service.  Colleges  and  social  work  emphasize  their 
religious  work.  The  same  institution  underscores  at 
different  times  the  homeless  boy,  the  orphan  boy, 
the  neglected  boy,  the  wayward  boy,  according  to 
which  is  in  the  limelight  of  public  interest. 

Some  agencies  refuse  to  temper  their  appeal  to 


WHAT  ORGANIZATIONS  WANTED      41 

the  to-be-shorn  lamb.  Instead  of  heading  an  appeal 
for  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  for  the  young  men  of 
the  south,  they  say  For  the  young  men  of  our  town. 
A  People's  Institute  says  it  cannot  make  an  emo- 
tional appeal  precisely  because  our  work  is  educa- 
tion, not  charity. 

They  are  right  who  suggest  to  the  wealthy  that 
unlimited  service  can  be  rendered  if  only  funds  are 
provided.'  One  year  apart  two  appeals  came  from 
the  same  institution.  The  first  reflected  incompe- 
tence, misunderstanding  and  misstatements.  The 
second  mentioned  gifts  of  from  $5,000  to  $25,000 
from  some  of  the  best  known  men  and  women  in 
the  country.  Thus,  with  no  change  whatever  on 
the  inside,  the  incompetent  of  1911  becomes  the 
potential  competent  and  influential  of  1912. 

$54,610,234.75  for  Schools,  Colleges  and 

Educational  Work 

General    Expense    $42,289,144.00 

Land   and    Buildings    5,652,451.00 

Equipment     135,224.75 

Endowment     2,259,605.00 

Buildings,  Equipment  or  Endowment. . .  1,974,000.00 

Enlargement    1,104,000.00 

Debt     13,150.00 

Scholarships     15,150.00 

Miscellaneous  or  Not  Stated  1,167,510.00 

Appeals  for  colleges  show  colleges  not  only  as 
they  see  themselves,  but  as  they  do  their  best  to 
make  others  see  them.  Perhaps  this  is  why  on  the 
whole  appealing  technique  is  less  efficient,  frankness 
less  flagrant  and  definiteness  less  frequent  than  the 
college  halo  would  lead   one  to  expect.     The  next 


42  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

generation  goes  to  college ;  the  present  generation 
pays  its  bills ;  but  the  last  generation  makes  the  be- 
quests, gives  the  endowments  and  erects  the  build- 
ings,—  at  least  if  the  wording  of  appeals  is  a  true 
index.  Conditions  of  survival  encourage  and  tempt 
those  who  write  appeals  for  educational  institu- 
tions to  use  the  general  language  of  motive  and  mes- 
sage rather  than  the  specifics  of  present  day  rela- 
tions. The  present  syllogism  reads :  "  Colleges 
give  education.  Education  is  salvation.  Who  helps 
me  gives  salvation,  democracy  and  freedom." 

For  local  consumption  only:  To  build,  en- 
dow, repair,  maintain  (or  all  four)  every  imaginable 
type  of  school  —  including  model  school  —  and  col- 
lege;  enlarge   campus;   build   science   hall;   replace 


Does  Brooklyn  Need  a 
Well-Equipped  College? 

INQUIRE     WITHIN 


buildings  lost  by  fire ;  increase  library  volumes ;  pub- 
lish college  annual;  farm  to  supplement  art  indus- 
tries; celebrate  president's  golden  jubilee;  endow 
astronomical  research  by  women;  dormitories  for  a 
state  university ;  erect  high  school  in  an  over  taxed 
neighborhood;  desks  and  seats  for  convent  classes; 


APPEALS  FOR  COLLEGES  43 

women's  university  club;  sorority  house;  chapel; 
gymnasium ;  colored  Y.  M.  C.  A.  for  Princeton 
(suggested  by  a  waiter  in  the  university  dining 
hall)  ;  chairs  in  Spanish,  Bible  training,  elementary 
agriculture,  philosophy,  English  Bible,  civics,  archi- 
tecture, domestic  science,  engineering,  fine  arts, 
housekeeping;  transportation  of  eight  sisters  of 
charity  to  a  city  1,000  miles  distant  for  their  re- 
treat 

Especially  for  the  South:  Standard  colleges  for 
women;  training  schools  for  domestic  science;  to 
enable  senior  class  to  give  a  memorial;  agricul- 
tural schools ;  above  all  things  wise  and  trained 
leadership   for   its   vast   negro   population   and   its 


Why  the  American  Interchurch  College 
For  Religious  and  Social  Workers 
Is  Necessary  in  the  South 

South  affords  the  richest  field  in  the  entire  nation  for  enlisting  and  training  recruits  as  social 
workers.  This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  one  poorly  equipped  training  school  in  the  South 
during  its  first  six  years'  work  enlisted  more  students  than  were  in  attendance  from  the  South 
in  all  the  Northern  training  schools  during  that  period. 

multitude  of  illiterate  whites;  the  negro  race  must 
continue  to  have  leaders  of  the  highest  training 
{higher  education)  in  order  to  hold  what  it  has  al- 
ready acquired;  to  relieve  intolerable  conditions  in 
the  Kentucky  mountains;  special  elementary  and  in- 
dustrial schools  for  the  negro;  a  higher  training 
school  for  teachers  of  the  south,  specifically  a  de- 
partment   in    training   teachers    to    apply   efficiency 


U  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

tests  to  public  schools  and  to  interest  taxpayers  in 
making  such  tests 

In  the  interest  of  public  schools:  Help  kin- 
dergartens make  such  success  that  school  boards 
would  carry  on  the  work;  pension  for  rural  teach- 

The  School  Lunch 

Where  It  Is  Served 

England. 
Germany. 
Austria. 
Belgium. 
Denmark. 
Holland. 

Norway  and  Sweden. 
Spain. 

Switzerland. 
Italy. 

Among  leading  civilized  countries  the 
United,  States  alone  is  doing  nothing  in 
this  work  of  such  vital  importance  to  our 
future  American  citizenship. 

ers  over  75  years  old ;  start  a  pension  fund  and  plan 
for  Virginia  teachers ;  promote  the  interest  of  art 
education  in  public  schools;  provide  outdoor  athlet- 
ics for  school  boys  and  girls  (200,000  boys  and 
20,000  girls  so  helped  in  New  York)  ;  study  of  atyp- 
ical children  in  ungraded  classes ;  school  lunches ; 
emergency  funds  in  the  hands  of  kindergartners  to 
furnish  clothing  for  children  who  are  obliged  to  re- 
main at  home  when  cold  weather  comes;  extend  chil- 


I    )lt  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  \r> 

<lnn's  school  farms  to  all  large  cities;  found  Junior 
Republics;  training  of  teachers  for  instruction  in 
sex  hygiene;  training  in  citizenship  through  pupil 
self  government  and  school  cities;  schools  for  crip- 
pled children ;  free  schools  of  agriculture ;  ranch 
school  for  poor  boys  on  farm;  aid  for  several  forms 
of  outside  cooperation  with  the  public  schools,  such 
as  public  education  associations,  National  Associa- 
tion for  Promoting  Industrial  Education,  child  labor 
committees,  vocational  bureaus,  etc 

Place  bronze  tablet  bearing  Lincoln's  Gettysburg 
address  in  all  public  schools;  promote  the  giving  of 
credit  in  public  schools  for  music  and  art  work 
done  outside,  or  arrange  for  public  schools  to  give 
lessons  (a  woman  friend  wrote  of  a  girl  sculptor: 
For  over  a  year  now  she  has  been  at  home  out  on  a 
plantation,  exiled  from  her  work  with  its  atmosphere 
of  art  and  intelligent  comprehension.  .  .  .  This 
true  child  of  genius,  frail  in  body,  is  beginning  to 
sink  into  low  health  and  despondency);  after-school 
extension  work;  preparatory  trade  school  supple- 
menting work  of  the  public  school  by  giving  chil- 
dren five  evenings  a  week  an  outlet  for  their  energy 
in  work  of  a  productive  instead  of  a  destructive 
nature 

For  education  of  children,  relatives,  friends  or 
the  writers,  236  asked  for  $321,000:  A  private 
school  for  children  whose  surroundings  are  such  that 
public  schools  cannot  help  them,  i.e.,  inheritance  to 
intemperance,  tuberculosis,  etc 


46  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Nation  wide  educational  opportunities:  To 
train  a  score  of  experts  in  the  art  of  transforming 
immigrants  to  true  American  citizens  in  a  single 
generation;  university  extension  for  city  children 
and  adults;  free  instruction  for  manual  laborers; 
help  educators  find  their  footing;  if  the  (craftsman) 
movement  can  be  put  on  a  philanthropic  basis  with 
foundation,  the  results  can  only  be  guessed;  estab- 
lish practical  housekeeping  centers ;  endow  university 
different  from  existing  universities  in  that  it  will 
take  up  present  day  problems  and  solve  them;  higher 
education  for  working  men  and  women ;  scholarships 
for  girls  with  fine  voice  and  without  means;  loan 
funds  on  business  basis  for  boys  and  girls,  men  and 
women  able  to  go  up  higher;  establish  self-support- 
ing students'  unions  among  most  promising  girls ; 
maintain  the  integrity  of  the  indispensable  small 
college;  help  solve  the  problem  of  the  larger  college; 
a  new  college  to  produce  leaders  for  every  depart- 
ment of  our  developing  life 

One  of  the  most  interesting  appeals  in  this  class 
was  to  endow  one  man  and  two  women: 

To  promote  peace,  harmony,  and  conciliation  be- 
tween Occidental  and  Oriental,  and  to  diffuse  knowl- 
edge, sound  learning  and  enlightenment 
through  sociability  or  interchange  of  calls,  lectures 
and  addresses,  publishing  a  monthly  periodical  and 
issuing  suitable  literature  .  .  .  conferences  be- 
tween Chinese  and  Westerners  on  all  matters  of 
common  mterest,  cooperation  in  philanthropic  and 


CHANCE  OF  HAVING  EDUCATION      47 

humanitarian  movements,  receptions  and  luncheons 
where  East  and  West  may  come  together,  and  spe- 
cial research  and  investigation. 

For  help  in  examining  appeals  from  colleges  Mrs. 
Harriman  has  turned  to  President  Pritchett  of  the 
Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of 
Teaching.  One  reply  which  gave  definite  informa- 
tion regarding  several  colleges  —  "  university  is  a 
misnomer  "  .  .  .  "  not  equipped  to  give  medical 
instruction "  .  .  .  "  carefully  administered  small 
college "  .  .  .  "  splendid  spirit  and  efficient 
teaching  "...     closed : 


u  The  question  of  giving  money  wisely  to  in- 
stitutions is  one  of  the  most  difficult  anyone 
can  mention.  Our  educational  state  is  so  con- 
fused and  there  are  so  many  more  colleges  try- 
ing to  enlist  public  support  than  have  any  rea- 
son for  existence,  that  even  the  man  best  ac- 
quainted with  education  will  oftentimes  find 
himself  puzzled  to  know  whether  the  request  of 
a  given  institution  ought  to  be  granted  or  not. 
In  addition  to  this,  many  of  these  institutions, 
I  regret  to  say,  put  forth  claims  which  are 
wholly  fictitious,  and  yet  which  are  put  in  so 
alluring  a  form  as  to  invite  public  sympathy 
and  support.  In  most  cases  this  is  not  done 
with  any  intention  to  deceive,  but  generally 
from  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  real  educational 
situation.  The  chance  of  doing  harm  is  much 
greater  than  the  chance  of  doing  good  unless 
the  giver  knows." 


48  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

$3i377>i42  for  Hospitals  and  Health  Work 

General    Expense    $      18,889 

Land  and   Buildings    267,810 

Equipment     4,185 

Endowment     1,336,035 

Buildings,  Equipment  or  Endowment 526,300 

Enlargement 115,066 

Debt    6,550 

Miscellaneous  or  Not  Stated  1,102,317 

The  rich  man's  mail  is  a  better  index  to  the  break- 
down of  health  work  than  is  the  best  text  book 
on  sanitary  administration.  It  shows  where  mod- 
ern sanitary  regulations  are  still  unknown  within 
cities  as  well  as  in  rural  districts.  Opportunities  — 
administrative  and  educational  —  for  advances  in 
sanitary  work  are  dramatically  pictured.     It  shows, 

"DUX  FEMINA  FACTI"— "A  thing 
of  Beauty  is  a  joy  forever."  Spread 
the  light.  $1,000  reward  to  any  sane 
person  who  can  disprove  the  fact  that 
the  Good  Boy,  Good  Health  ioo-acre 
Farm,  Charming  Camp  Nucleus  .    .    . 

too,  that  health  work  passed  long  ago  beyond  the 
possibilities  of  private  philanthropy  and  that  the 
time  has  come  for  cities,  counties,  cooperating  town- 
ships, states  and  nations  to  get  under  100%  of  the 
load  of  locating,  understanding  and  fighting  pre- 
ventable sickness,  including  dangerous  trades  and 
catching  diseases. 

The  majority  of  appeals  are  for  u  going  "  hos- 
pitals,—  salaries,    maintenance,    repairs,   new   build- 


FOR  HEALTH  WORK  49 

ings,  deficits,  nurses,  physicians,  clinics.  The  gap 
between  what  we  know  about  health  and  what  we  do 
about  it  is  vastly  greater  and  more  important  than 
the  gap  between  what  we  know  and  what  we  ought 
to  know.  That  is,  the  deaths  and  the  sick  bills  due 
to  causes  we  know  how  to  prevent  are  infinitely 
greater  than  the  deaths  from  causes  that  need  still 
to  be  researched.  If  asked  for  an  epitome  of  the 
greatest  single  opportunity  in  the  health  line  for 
private   philanthropy,   as  judged   from   our   letters, 


WHICH? 

Sleeping 

outdoors 

• 
on  a  hot  night, 

or  playing  outdoors 

on 

a  cool  day, 

shall  be 

our  children's 

most  mem- 

orable    experience 

this 

Summer  ? 

I  should  hesitate  between  two  nation  wide  oppor- 
tunities: (1)  to  stimulate  directly  outside,  critical, 
constructive  cooperation  with  health  departments 
so  as  to  bring  about  efficient  supervision  by  state 
boards  over  rural  districts  and  small  cities,  and  by 
boards  over  large  cities ;  (2)  the  rural  hygiene 
movement  represented  by  both  central  and  portable 
hospital,  house  to  house  nurse  and  house  to  house 
physician.  Dr.  Grenfel  tells  no  more  thrilling  sto- 
ries  of  bringing  medical   and  surgical  relief  within 


50  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

the  reach  of  fishermen  and  Esquimaux  of  Labrador 
than  could  and  should  be  told  within  a  short  time 
for  all  parts  of  this  country  by  agencies  such  as 
the  Holman  Association  and  one  or  two  other  nurs- 
ing associations  for  rural  districts  which  have  ap- 
pealed. 

Among  the  less  advertised  opportunities  for  pro- 
moting health  were  urged  the  following: 

Research  laboratory  to  study  epilepsy;  trav- 
eling tuberculosis  exhibits  for  small  towns ; 
study  of  segregation  and  sterilization  of  the 
feeble  minded;  museum  of  safety  and  sanita- 
tion ;  drink  cures ;  cancer  experiments ;  relief 
funds  for  hospitals  where  outside  relief  agencies 
do  not  help ;  welfare  nurses ;  home  care  for  the 
insane ;  hospital  for  osteopathy ;  help  for  "  shut 
in  "  nurses ;  endowment  fund  for  half  pay  pa- 
tients ;  educational  sanitarium  to  teach  modern 
methods  of  dealing  with  tuberculosis ;  cam- 
paigns against  the  cigarette  and  alcohol ;  sci- 
entific study  of  alcoholism ;  Saturday  and  Sun- 
day hospital  associations ;  college  of  public 
health  for  training  municipal  health  officers ; 
campaign  for  dental  hygiene  through  smaller 
towns ;  fund  to  place  what  might  be  called 
cheerful  thoughts  in  hospitals ;  study  of  trop- 
ical diseases ;  hospitals  for  children  suffering 
from  sex  diseases ;  central  field  experimental 
laboratory  in  eugenics,  and  nation  wide  cam- 
paign to  popularize  principles  of  eugenics ; 
care  for  convalescents  at  home  instead  of  in  ex- 
pensive hospitals ;  care  for  convalescents  in  the 
country  instead  of  in  city  hospitals 


FOR  HEALTH  PROPAGANDA  51 

Campaigns:  city  wide  and  state  wide  to 
reduce  infant  mortality  through  milk  stations, 
health  department  efficiency,  house  to  house,  in- 
struction, publicity,  etc;  for  raising  and  en- 
forcing adequate  milk  standards  throughout  the 
nation;  for  study  of  2,000  expectant  mothers 
with  a  view  to  reducing  the  heavy  mortality  of 

IMPRISONED  FOR  ILL  HEALTH 

How  •  penon  nay  be  locked  up  on  no  charge  and  detained  lot 
month*,  to  all  intend  like  a  criminal,  and  discharged  wiihiul 
apology  or   recompense   by   Ihe   Slate. 

babies,  with  special  reference  to  still  births  and 
others  not  now  registered  as  preventable  dis- 
eases ;  instruction  in  midwifery ;  care  for  sick 
babies  under  the  care  of  itinerant  house  to 
house  nurses  instead  of  in  institutions;  for  giv- 
ing abc  of  health  through  the  newspapers;  for 
furthering  citizen  watchfulness  of  hospitals  and 
health  work ;  study  of  food  —  animal  —  health 
—  although  this  is  incidentally  a  pig  welfare 
proposition  it  is  preeminently  a  child  welfare 
proposition 

$6,51 5,562  for  Homes  and  Asylums 

(Including  provision   for  dependent  children,  aged   defectives 
delinquents,  day  nurseries,  and  miscellaneous  homes) 

General   Expense    $      18,457.50 

Land    and    Buildings    316,017.50 

Equipment    70,115.00 

Endowment    3,037,100.00 

Buildings,  Equipment  or  Endowment....        12,500.00 

Enlargement    11,500.00 

Debt     9,705.00 

Miscellaneous  or  Not  Stated  3,040,167.00 

In  addition  to  all  the  requests  necessary  to  main- 


52  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

tenance  and  building  of  homes  and  asylums  for  the 
aged,  orphans,  half  orphans,  infants,  soldiers,  etc, 
homes- were  proposed  for  the  following: 

National  government  employees ;  crippled 
railroad  employees ;  home  farms  for  aged  per- 
sons ;  for  professional  women,  authors,  actors, 
etc ;  for  working  girls ;  a  sort  of  school  where 
poor  suffering  humanity  can  come  to  rest;  ex- 
tension education  for  unruly  and  delinquent 
boys ;  a  model  baby  farm.  Just  how  a  farm 
home  for  newsboys  would  fit  into  the  exigencies 
of  that  profession  was  not  stated 


PLEASE  RETURN  THIS  LIST 


No. 


18% 


Subscriptions  and  Donations 

FOR  THE 

Boys*  Club 


Contributions  may  be  tent  with  this  book  or  mads 
payable  any  time  during  the  year  or  on  demand. 


Please  Return  this  List  to 


FOR  SOCIAL  WORK  53 

$80,605  for  Clubs  and  Associations 

General  Expense   $  3,100 

Buildings    72,525 

Equipment    650 

Endowment    1,000 

Debt     3,000 

Miscellaneous  or  Not  Stated  330 


Typical  objects  advertised  in  this  class  are: 

Sorority  house  for  which,  after  several  years 
of  effort  $900  has  been  raised  towards  $20,- 
000;  chapter  house  for  professional  women; 
furnishings  for  Daughters  of  Rebecca  lodge; 
houses  for  women's  clubs;  building  for  cultural 
club;  uniforms,  blankets  and  tents  for  Boys' 
Cadet  Corps;  a  clearing  house  or  club  for  men 
of  imrious  religious  denominations  to  get  to- 
gether and  talk  over  civic  affairs 

$120,862,131  for  Social  and  Civic  Agencies 

(Including   Pension   Funds    and    Relief    Agencies) 

General    Expense     $11,779,813.50 

Land  and  Buildings   25,680,050.00 

Equipment    501,267.50 

Endowment    117.025.00 

Buildings,   Equipment  or  Endowment...  40,000,000.00 

Enlargement    5,110.00 

Debt    8,025.00 

Miscellaneous  or  Not  Stated 42,770,840.00 

For  208  different  causes,  including  a  handful  of 
scientific  bodies,  this  total  was  requested.  They  in- 
clude : 


A  business  plan  requiring  $10,000,000  to  re- 
duce the  cost  of  living  in  New  York,  eliminate 
poverty  and  abolish  crime  which  will  accomplish 
more  in  five  years  in  actual  uplift  than  all  the 


54  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

philanthropists  since  Adam;  a  supply  of  cheer- 
ful thoughts  to  be  distributed  to  jails  and  hos- 
pitals; an  invention  to  make  intoxicants  non- 
injurious;  a  reform  which  will  set  aside  a  com- 
pulsory tax  equal  to  one  day's  pay  for  each 
laborer,  plus  a  progressive  tax  on  property  to 
provide  labor  for  the  unemployed;  breeding 
and  training  preserves  for  wild  birds ;  halls  in 
small  towns  for  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
lodges,  etc,  including  a  community  hall  in  a 
southern  city  suitable  for  musical  entertain- 
ments, banquets,  etc;  free  cold  water  foun- 
tains ;  found  a  happy  home  for  persons  of  re- 
finement in  moderate  circumstances;  build  home 


Ol)e  Ifumait  Kfome 

TS  (he  finest  product  of  out  civilization.  Into  it  goes 
the  best  we  have  and  know  and  are ;  for  it  we  hope 
and  plan  and  work.  When  poverty  compels  the  home- 
makers  of  the  tenements  to  become  daily  wage-earners,  a 
child,  ignorant  and  unskilled,  cares  for  the  younget  «nes 
and  does  the  household  tasks  as  best  she  can.  We  have 
named  this  child 

THE    LITTLE    MOTHER 

for  aged  Swedes;  promote  welfare  work  in  fac- 
tories ;  improve  conditions  and  results  of  prison 
labor;  prevent  mendicancy  and  charitable  im- 
posture; furnish  decorations  for  branch  libra- 
ries and  public  schools ;  protect  wild  life ;  help 
for  blind  girls  in  China ;  to  help  the  Big  Broth- 
ers, Boy  Scouts,  Camp  Fire  Girls,  G.  A.  R. 

In  addition  to  many  forms  of  social  work  and  to 


Loane.l   by  the  Big  Brother*  Movement 

APPEALS  WITHOUT  WORDS 


FOR  SOCIAL  WORK 

several  large  schemes   for  rural  homes,  model  tene- 
ments, model  business  venturet,  etc,  which  will  read 
ily  6ccur  to  the  reader,  the  following  opportunities 
were  urged : 

To  secure  from  Holland  the  records  of  the 
early  history  of  New  York;  to  purchase  histor- 
ical paintings  from  private  owners  for  public 
museums;  the  scientific  study  of  temperance; 
study  on  a  vast  scale  of  the  abnormal  and  de- 
linquent; founding  a  national  library  and  lec- 
ture bureau  for  negroes ;  several  plans  for  fight- 
ing socialism  by  propaganda  literature;  estab- 
lish fellowships  in  civic  research ;  agricultural 
loan  schemes ;  promote  the  reform  of  criminal 
law;  to  start  a  great  main  bank  in  New  York 
with  branches  in  all  American  cities ;  for  estab- 
lishing a  system  of  old  age  pensions ;  promote 
labor  legislation;  a  4%  paying  hotel  for  busi- 
ness women ;  inter-municipal  research  to  study 
conditions  of  unemployed  and  unskilled  women ; 
nation  wide  campaign  to  fight  the  income  tax ; 
to  further  the  single  tax ;  reduction  and  pre- 
vention of  congestion ;  improving  industrial 
conditions  for  women  and  children,  such  as 
fighting  for.  fifty-four  hour  bill  and  preventing 
Sunday  work  for  women  in  department  stores ; 
establish  pension  fund  for  federation  of  rail- 
road employees;  open  up  productive  lands  that 
are  idle  through  scarcity  of  labor;  reduce 
funeral  bills  for  the  poor  and  change  their 
standard  of  funeral  display;  improve  social 
conditions  in  Mexico  where  the  human  element 
has  been  entirely  neglected  when  improving  the 
country;    fight    polygamy    and   celestial   mar- 


56  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

riages;  endow  an  academy  of  scientific  thinking 

$21,445,888.50   for   Churches   and   Other   Religious 
Work 

(Including  Missions  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Work) 

A  New  Kind  of  University   $20,000,000.00 

General  Expense 233,687.50 

Land  and  Buildings    647,145.50 

Equipment    126,475.00 

Endowment    90,537.50 

Equipment,  Buildings  or  Endowment 35,500.00 

Enlargement     109,455.00 

Debt   116,025.00 

Miscellaneous  87,063.00 

It  is  difficult  to  treat  adequately  the  letters  that 
have  come  in  the  interest  of  religious  work,  without 
seeming  irreverent  or  at  least  unsympathetic.  That 
the  reader  may  judge  for  himself,  I  quote  extracts 
verbatim  from  persons  believing  themselves  to  be, 
or  pretending  to  be  prompted,  by  religious  motive. 
With  but  one  or  two  exceptions  letters  from  colored 
churches  are  not  quoted,  or  from  obviously  illiterate 
persons. 

Church  leaders  are  alive  to  the  pauperizing  ten- 
dency of  church  methods  which  (a)  pay  too  small 
salaries ;  (b)  make  a  community  drudge  of  the  min- 
ister's wife;  (c)  shamelessly  neglect  provision  for 
sickness,  old  age,  and  education  of  children;  (d) 
create  debts  hopelessly  beyond  power  to  pay;  (e) 
chronically  fail  to  pay  their  own  way  on  the  expec- 
tation that  begging  letters  will  pay;  (f)  confuse 
extravagance  for  respect;  (g)  subordinate  service 
to  display;    (h)   write  letters  as  mendicant  and  as 


Ml  NDICANCY  OF  CHURCH  APPEALS     57 


irreverent  as  the  woman  who  wishes  God  would  give 
me  a  start  in  the  chicken  business;  (i)  mark  en- 
velopes containing  church  appeals  personal,  private, 
strictly  confidential;  (j)  shift  the  cost  (and  privi- 
lege) of  religious  work  from  the  many  who  are  sup- 
posed  to   understand  their   need   for   it   to   the   few 

Our  W^^^  ^^*^^^^^^B 

They're    After   ME.    this   Time  ^M      I 

F*»r  and  ^^^■^B^M'^^^MB^Hi  ^MMta  I    Em,rc   Proceeds 

Thank  Offering     |  f#  of  Both  the 

Paid  the  Fair 

(October  25-28) 

and  the 


Entire 

Floating  Debt  of 

$2,200  and 

Reduced 
the  Mortgage 

$3,000.  BHIHHI^HIk^HH^^H^^HkVBIB     Mortgage  Fund 

Our  Mortgage  has  been  our  "WHITE  ELEPHANT"  for  Twenty-two  Year*       -^S^8*"^* 
Last  year  it  was  $12,000  This  year  it  is  $9,000  Next  year  it  will  be (?)/ 


Thank  Offering 
.(November  20) 

will  go  to 
the 


Bear  in  Mind 


Iflrthu&iBt  fcjiiunjjial  (Clutrrh 


PAR50N45I. 


who  are  found  susceptible  to  appeals  often  made  to 
their  weaker  sides  to  pay  more  than  their  share. 

Why  should  Protestant  congregations  from  one 
end  of  the  land  to  the  other  be  supported  by  a  few 
rich  members  when  their  Catholic  neighbors  build 
expensive  edifices  and  maintain  their  independence 
out  of  mites? 

No  letters  afford  greater  educational  opportunity 


58  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

than  church  appeals.  Any  congregation  which  is 
sure  that  God  told  us  to  ask  you  deserves  whatever 
attention  is  required  to  straighten  out  its  concep- 
tion of  the  way  the  Lord  operates.  When  a  ladies' 
aid  society  writes  to  a  wealthy  woman  that  it  has 
guaranteed  to  pay  off  $1,000  of  the  church  debt, 
and  will  you  please  send  your  check  for  $1,000, 
those  ladies  are  as  worthy  objects  of  a  lesson  in 
applied  ethics  and  sociology  as  the  brightest  class 
in  a  woman's  college.  Who  is  a  fitter  beneficiary 
of  church  extension  than  the  minister  who  writes 
of  $25,000  lost  in  speculation  and  of  troublesome 
creditors, —  When  I  have  paid  one,  then  the  next 
one  starts  in.  Besides  this  I  have  the  many  souls 
of  the  congregation  under  my  care,  and  a  good 
many  of  my  church  members  have  told  me  that  I 
look  pale  and  troubled.  But  no  one  knows  of  my 
troubles  but  you  and  my  dear  Lord.  When  a 
church  wants  an  edifice  far  beyond  its  means,  for 
prestige  in  its  competition  with  five  other  churches, 
somebody  from  somewhere  has  a  chance  to  do  home 
missionary  work,  less  expensive  and  more  productive 
than  building  a  church. 

One  minister  in  a  distant  city,  whose  example 
of  self  help  we  had  cited  to  hundreds,  told  me  that 
he  would  feel  himself  imposed  upon  by  having  his 
work  cited  for  educational  purposes  among  his  fel- 
low pastors  unless  Mrs.  Harriman  was  going  to 
make  him  a  generous  cash  donation. 

But  you  must  judge  for  yourself: 


MENDICANCY  OF  CHURCH  APPEALS     59 

As  God  has  directed  me  to  you,  I  am  sure  by  the 
tim-c  this  reaches  you  He  will  have  put  it  in 
/four  heart  to  give  us  a  little 

While  in  church  this  morning  the  thought  came 
to  me,  "  Ask  Mrs.  Harriman  to  help  you"  and 
in  answer  to  the  wee  small  voice  I  ask,  Won't 
you  help  us  with  our  organ?  .  .  ,  I  dis- 
like to  Intrude  on  your  valuable  time,  but  this 
(a  pipe  organ)  is  the  King's  business 

The  mortgage  on  tlie  church  is  a  mortgage  on  the 
property  of  Jesus  Christ  and  is  a  discourag- 
ing obstacle  to   the  poor  struggling  parish 

A  priest  wants  suggestions  of  way  to  secure  a 
j)iano  at  $150.  Am  willing  to  go  beggmg 
from  door  to  door  if  need  be 

The  Sunday  School  fund  upon  which  I  have  de- 
pended,—  the  entire  meager  existence  of  self 
and  family  —  becomes  exhausted  tomorrow 

The  Episcopalians  of  this  city  thought  best  to 
build  a  new  church,  and  as  three  other  denomi- 
nations thought  tliey  likewise  needed  new 
churclies  it  is  a  very  heavy  tax  on  this  city. 
We  are  meeting  in  a  small  hall 

Our  church  is  $82,000  in  debt.  Four  of  our 
pastors  have  lost  their  minds  worrying  about 
it.  We  have  had  fairs  and  everything  that 
would  make  money,  but  the  debt  is  so  great 
that  it  takes  all  and  more  to  pay  the  interest 

A  church,  which  after  several  years  of  effort  has 
succeeded  in  raising  but  $500  for  an  organ, 
objects  to  an  old  foot  power  melodeon  and  con- 
siders that  nothing  less  than  a  $5,000  organ  is 
suitable  for  the  church 

Please  help  the  cause  of  Jesus  $500  worth 
(toward  $1,522.68  mortgage) 


60  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Most  of  the  women  have  Methodist  husbands,  but 
the  church  is  ten  miles  from  us,  so  we  are  try- 
ing to  build  this  one  (Baptist) 

I  am  asking  this  (clothing)  at  a  venture  in  and 
through  the  name  of  Jesus 

An  always  faithful  class  wrote:  We  have  under- 
taken and  hence  ask  you 

May  your  benefactions  be  as  sweet  as  Mary's 
alabaster  box  of  ointment 

Church  requests  for  local  consumption  only: 
A  new  type  of  university  to  teach  a  knowledge  of 
this  world  plus  a  knowledge  of  heaven  —  with  spe- 
cial schools,  selected  students,  character  tests  — 
same  service  for  rich  and  poor,  all  expenses  paid, 
$600  per  year 

Children's  building  for  social  work ;  furnace  for 
a  rectory ;  furnace  for  a  church ;  tuberculosis  work ; 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  buildings ;  apron  or 
two;  chapel  to  be  used  by  deaf  mutes ;  reading 
room  and  place  for  socials  to  help  young  people 
from  being  tempted  to  places  of  sin  and  sorrow; 
automobile ;  piano  ;  buggy ;  maintenance  of  horse ; 
synagogue ;  lift  mortgage ;  endowment ;  restore 
church  again  destroyed  by  hurricane ;  industrial  de- 
partment; help  to  stop  impropriety  and  incompe- 
tence alleged  (and  later  proved)  against  superin- 
tendent of  church  home  for  children ;  help  church 
of  16  women  and  8  men  pay  $1,000  debt;  pay  debts 
of  minister  for  salary;  individual  communion  set; 
mission  salaries ;  build,  endow,  repair  church,  chapel, 
parsonage,    clubs;    save    church    from    being    sold; 


FOR  CHURCH  PURPOSES  61 

$100,000  to  save  $2,000,000  of  insurance  in  force  for 
one  minister's  association;  chaplain  for  strangers; 
art  gallery  in  church ;  cement  walks ;  bath  tubs ; 
carpets ;  raise  pastor's  salary  because  he  needs  the 
common  necessities  of  life;  an  altar  which  would  be 
not  only  a  memorial  .  .  .  but  to  the  glory  of 
God  and  this  Kingdom  (finally  lost  in  the  emo- 
tionalism he  is  trying  to  express)  Its  opportunities 
for  spreading  Christ's  Kingdom  are  unlimited 
(elsewhere  the  letter  shows  communion  list  of  37 
names) 

SEVEN    REASONS   WHY   EVERY   PHILANTHROPIC   KANSAN   SHOULD 

LEND  A  HAND  IN  THE  RUILDING  OF  THE  FIRST 

INSTITUTIONAL  CHURCH  IN  KANSAS. 

BY  THE  JU.N  BEHIND  THE  MOVE.MEKT. 

Nation  wide  church  opportunities  specified  or 
suggested:  Interest  college  and  medical  school 
graduates  in  settlement  work,  civic  work,  big 
brother  movement,  etc;  promote  union  churches  and 
local  federations  of  churches ;  mass  meetings  all  over 
the  country  on  behalf  of  Sabbath  worship  and  good 
citizenship;  evangelistic  movement  to  include  sick, 
accident  and  old  age  benefits  and  religious  work ; 
training  men  and  women  for  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W. 
C.  A.  work, —  especially  colored  and  white  for  the 
South  —  an  opportunity  to  serve  3,000,000  people 
at  the  point  of  greatest  need;  institutional  church 
for  railroad  men  and  womenys  church  union  with 
seven  spheres  of  activity;  physical  well  being;  social 
welfare;   religious  ideals;  civic  relations;   world  re- 


62  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

demption;  conference  among  Indians,  especially  the 
educated;  syndicate  and  refund  church  debts  at 
lower  interest  rates ;  promote  fire  insurance,  sinking 
and  depreciation  funds  for  religious  work,  buildings 

TWELVE  DAY  OPPORTUNITY  CAMPAIGN 

"Nashville  Offers  Opportunity" 

THE  DOOR  OF  OPPORTUNITY  FOR  THE  BOYS  AND  YOUNG  MEN  OF 
NASHVILLE  OPENS  INTO  THE  YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION 

$80,000  in  Twelve  Days  H  February  26 -March  9/12 

TO  REMOVE  THE  WHITE  ELEPHANT  FROM  THE  DOOR  OF  OPPORTUNITY 

cmzws  tiMiiin :  hsuhs  »i»s  comma .  toinc  Mil  cNinmt:, 

and  equipment ;  promote  adequate  purchasing,  ac- 
counting and  reporting  (the  waste  rate  in  spending 
church  funds,  in  spite  of  wholesale  poverty,  is  said 
by  churchmen  to  be  higher  than  in  public  business)  ; 
correspondence  courses  in  theology  (already  716  en- 
rolled) ;  automatic  follow  up  of  isolated  communi- 
cants; interest  churches  in  adequate  public  support 
for  public  schools,  public  hospitals  rather  than  for- 
eign support  of  local  church  schools  and  hospitals ; 
a  follow  up  program  to  use  the  results  of  the  men 
and  religion  forward  movement  to  include  a  clear- 
ing house  for  exchange  of  results  of  religious  sur- 
veys ;  instruction  through  field  agents,  seminary  and 
training  school  lectures,  and  handbooks  in  taking 
religious  and  social  census.  (Needed  for  budget 
making  and  cooperation  of  church  with  local  gov- 
ernments. See  Church  and  Society  by  R.  Fulton 
Cutting) 

Episcopal  bishops  on  church  appealing:   At- 
tempts to  test  the.  desire  of  church  men  to  think 


BISHOPS  ON  APPEALING  63 

out  standards  of  efficiency  in  appealing  and  giving 
disclose  not  only  great  differences  of  opinion  about 
such  standards,  but  about  the  propriety  of  discuss- 
ing the  subject. 

After    appeals    had    come    from    pastors,    finance 
committees  and  parishioners  for  300  churches,  Mrs. 

We  have: 

A  Fall  Rally 

A  Thanksgiving  Party 

A  Christmas  Entertainment 

A  Valentine  Party 

A  May  Festival 

Special  Class  Parties 

Monthly  Socials  for  all  Evening  Clubs 

Summer  Picnics  and  an  Outing  Club 

Harriman's  pastor  at  Arden,  Rev.  J.  H.  McGuin- 
ness,  sent  a  summary  and  analysis  of  requests  which 
then  totaled  $112,300,000  including  $575,000  for 
churches,  to  Episcopal  bishops,  who  commented  as 
follows : 

(1)  /  am  not  surprised  at  the  avalanche  of 
letters  .  .  .  She  is  doing  a  real  and 
thoughtful  and  useful  and  helpful  thing  in  re- 
cording and  classifying  and  studying  them, 
and  ought  to  have  the  thanks  of  all  intelligent 
and  wise  and  dutiful  givers;  I  am  astonished  by 
its  showing.  When  you  see  her  again  will  you 
kindly  beg  her  pardon  on  my  behalf  for  adding 
my  appeals  to  others? 

(2)  /  am  very  glad  to  know  in  the  rough  the 
very  astonishing  figures.  It  makes  me  very  glad 
that  having  no  right  at  all  to  appeal  to  Mrs. 


64  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Harriman  it  has  never  occurred  to  me  nor  to 
any  one  in  my  diocese  that  it  would  be  the 
proper  thing  to  ask  her  to  aid  us 

(3)  My  own  case  is  as  bad,  if  not  worse,  in- 
asmuch as  letters  come  to  me  from  all  over  the 
country  and  the  world  asking  for  assistance 

(4)  Of  course,  as  a  bishop  I  belong  to  the 
"  begging  fraternity."  Your  letter  suggests 
an  appeal  which  I  had  not  thought  of  before 
and  warns  me  not  to  presume  upon  my  position 
as  a  bishop  of  the  church 

(5)  While  we  have  our  difficulties,  I  have  not 
sanctioned  any  appeals  that  are  not  published 
through  our  church  press  which  have  not  a  clear 
call  to  the  general  church 

(6)  It  would  be  well  in  my  judgment  to  have 
a  stereotyped  answer  which  a  secretary  would 
send  to  begging  requests,  the  greater  number 
of  which  deserve  to  be  put  in  the  waste  paper 
basket.  I  have,  as  you  know,  a  hard  mission- 
ary work  to  do.  For  my  own  part,  I  take  no 
salary  but  give  to  the  church  my  services  and 
all  that  my  necessary  wants  of  raiment,  food  and 
lodging  do  not  demand.  I  have  not  asked  oth- 
ers to  help  me  no  matter  how  much  I  needed  as- 
sistance. I  have  felt  when  persons  knew  me 
and  were  moved  by  God  to  help  me  they  would 
do  so.     I  send  for  your  perusal,  etc 

(7)  The  chief  difficulty  I  have  with  persons 
of  wealth  is  to  secure  their  investigation.  They 
have  so  many  applications  that  they  naturally 
reject  all.  I  feel  that  I  would  probably  do  the 
same  —  if  I  had  the  chance.  We  have  a  propo- 
sition which  can  stand  the  closest  scrutiny. 
The  need  for  such  a  school  exists.     We  have 


BISHOPS  ON  APPEALING  65 

done  our  port;  we  invite  investigation, —  Result 
on  every  side,  our  appeal  is  ignored 

(8)  The  investigation  will  be  of  real  social 
service,  for  while  ice  all  know  that  millions  may 
be  usefully  invested  in  educational  and  religious 
institutions,  there  is  an  enormous  haphazard  in 
the  way  in  which  the  money  is  sought  and  used 
by  many,  and  if,  from  her  correspondence,  cer- 
tain principles  can  be  gained  it  will  be  of  much 
service.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  say  this  too:  that 
this  week  I  am,  with  others,  to  take  up  the  study 
of  a  large  charitable  question  which  will  last 
for  two  years,  for  we  want  this  thing  thoroughly 
done.  If  at  that  time  we  find  that  large  funds 
are  needed,  I  may  be  found  among  those  who 
are  turning  to  Mrs.  Harriman  to  present  a 
cause  that  is  worth  while  and  ask  not  for  a  small 
sum  but  a  large  one,  because  there  may  be  ele- 
ments in  it  that  will  kindle  her  special  interest 

(9)  //  appeals  were  made  from  schools  like 
Blank  .  .  .  they  would  have  met  with  my 
endorsement,  because  these  fine  schools  are  as- 
sured successes  which  have  proved  their  great 
usefulness.  They  now  only  need  endowed 
scholarships  to  enable  them  to  continue  their 
good  work.  But  I  do  not  feel  that  I  would  have 
presumed  to  endorse  any  appeal  made  by  any  of 
our  churches,  for  while  some  of  them  -are  needy 
enough  I  am  a  great  believer  in  the  principle 
of  self  help  to  the  greatest  extent  possible 

(10)  In  all  matters  where  I  am  obliged  to 
have  assistance  from  the  outside  I  think  I  am 
careful  to  appeal  only  to  those  who  have  some 
reason  to  be  interested  in  a  specific  work.  I 
really  do  not  think  that  in  all  my  life  I  have 


66  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

ever  asked  anybody  for  money  simply  because 
he  was  supposed  to  have  a  great  deal 

Clergymen  on  church  appealing:  In  Novem- 
ber, 1911,  we  wrote  to  a  number  of  representative 
clergymen  of  several  denominations  that  our  appeals 
for  religious  work  had  raised  several  questions. 
We  asked  them  if  they  would  care  to  answer  the 
questions  and  to  suggest  ways  in  which  the  letters 
might  be  used  to  bring  about  a  discussion  of  similar 
questions  for  the  benefit  of  church  work  and  the  en- 
listment of  efficient  interest  that  would  go  towards 
the  advancement  of  church  work.  From  their  ac- 
knowledgments I  quote  answer  and  question  sepa- 
rately : 

1.  Should  a  congregation  start  any  new  building, 

or  incur  other  financial  obligation  before  the 
money  therefor  is  pledged? 

(1)  No;  (2)  religion  which  works  by  faith 
has  a  perfect  right  to  trust  to  God  to  help 
it  perform  its  duty;  (3)  the  end  should  be 
in  sight;  (4)  yes.  Every  good  business  man 
anticipates  growth;  only  a  dead  congrega- 
tion sleeps 

2.  If  a  congregation  is  not  too  large  for  parlor 

meetings,  or  for  schoolhouse  meetings,  should 
it  be  encouraged  to  secure  funds  from  the 
outside  for  the  erection  of  a  "  more  suitable 
edifice"? 

(1)   No;  (2)  yes;  in  mission  fields  and  in  rapidly 


CLERGYMEN  ON  APPEALING  (57 

growing  citt/  districts;  (3)  depends  alto- 
gether upon  the  character  of  the  people  and 
their  town 

3.  If  a  congregation  cannot  itself  afford  a  church 

costing  more  than,  say  $30,000,  should  it  be 
helped  by  outsiders  to  erect  a  $90,000  church? 

(1)  No;  (2)  a  $90,000  church  is  not  too  good 
for  the  poorest 

4.  If  it   cannot   afford   anything  better   than   an 

"  old  foot  power  melodeon  "  should  it  ask  for 
a  $5,000  pipe  organ? 

(1)  Aro;  (2)  parishes  in  small  towns  are  not 
religious  clubs  organized  for  the  benefits  of 
those  small  towns  only;  they  are  outposts 
of  the  great  army  —  the  church  —  and  are 
entitled  to  the  help  of  all  who  belong  to  the 
main  army  (One  wonders  whether  the  his- 
tory of  church  work  would  have  been  differ- 
ent had  congregations  held  their  religious 
meetings  in  parlors,  front  yards,  stables  or 
stores  until  they  could  afford  to  build 
churches,  instead  of  being  taught  that  rich 
persons  at  a  distance  would  build  their 
churches  for  them,  on  this  theory) 

5.  Should  a  church  which  cannot   afford  to  car- 

pet its  own  floors  be  encouraged  to  give  a  big 
collection  to  foreign  missions? 

(1)  No;  (2)  such  giving  is  so  rare  Vd  say  yes, 
such  a  church  would  soon  get  a  carpet;  (3) 
the  question  is  not  fair.  Collections  for  mis- 
sions are  the  test  of  life;  (4)  question  shows 


68  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

an  utter  inability  to  grasp  the  meaning  of 
the  spiritual  work  of  the  church 

6.  Would  it  be  fair  to  say  that  church  work  (ex- 

cepting mission  churches)  would  be  most  suc- 
cessful if  conducted  in  quarters  erected  and 
maintained  by  the  community  it   serves? 

(1)   Yes;  (2)  as  a  rule;   (3)  largely 

7.  Is  this  the  time  to  encourage  or  to  discourage 

denominational  differences  in  small  communi- 
ties by  supplying  or  refusing  to  supply  funds 
for  "  our  own  church  home?  " 

(1)  To  discourage;  (2)  a  man  who  believes 
nothing  tolerates  everything 

8.  Should  wealthy  men  and  women  be  encouraged 

to  give  to  individual  petitioners,  or  to  work 

The  Most  Strategic 

Missionary  Opportunity  in  the  World 

through  central  church  organizations,  i.e., 
for  pensions,  church  extension,  etc  ? 

(1)  Both  perhaps,  but  more  especially  for  pen- 
sions, etc;  (2)  question  too  general;  (3)  let 
every  wealthy  man  and  woman  remember 
that  God  Almighty  will  judge 

Memorials  Suggested 
Churches:     Church     organs;     chimes;     windows; 
"Gates    Ajar";   pews;    attractive    acknowledgment 


SUGGESTED  MEMORIALS  69 

framed  in  the  vestry  room;  magazine  picture  of  you 
framed  and  placed  in  a  conspicuous  place  if  you  will 
contribute  (to  remove  church  debts) 

Colleges:  Chair  of  history;  military  academy; 
dormitories;  assembly  hall;  physical  and  chemical 
laboratories;  public  business  department  in  state 
university;  commercial  college;  educational  service 
in  China;  bronze  tablet 

Hospitals:  Chair  in  assembly  for  aged  people; 
cottage  on  farm  for  city  children;  homes  for  con- 
sumptives; educational  sanatorium 

Miscellaneous :  Playground ;  fruit  farm ;  home- 
stead colony;  factory  system  to  net  4%  to  5% 


Bear  in  Mind 
A  BIG  SUPPER 

will  be  served 

EXCH  NIGHT 

of  the 
Mortgage  Fund 

Fair 
Oct  24,  25,  26,  27 

1911 


Nation  Wide  Needs  Disclosed 

Symptoms  of  no  less  than  31  "  universal  needs  " 
were  listed  for  Mrs.  Harriman  from  the  first  instal- 
ment of  100  letters.  Almost  every  appeal  indicated 
a  breakdown  of  some  recognized  time  honored  func- 
tion of  society  and  showed  the  tendency  to  provide 
for  broken  chains,  not  for  weak  links.  For  hints,  sug- 
gestions, outlines  and  scenarios  like  those  in  appeals, 
moving  picture  shows  and  editors  are  paying  $25 
and  $75  to  authors  of  whom  they  know  and  care 
nothing,  and  manufacturers,  department  stores  and 
stage  managers  offer  prizes  and  stake  large  invest- 
ments. Yet  givers  and  students  of  social  forces 
have  been  throwing  into  the  waste  basket  invaluable 
facts  and  suggestions. 

Many  of  the  nation  wide  needs  here  noted  are 
voiced  by  organizations,  some  national  in  program 
but  local  in  membership.  Now  that  moving  pic- 
tures can  show  us  plants  growing,  a  chicken  devel- 
oping from  the  yolk,  chemical  combustion,  etc,  I 
hope  they  will  try  to  picture  the  effect  on  an  open 
mind  of  the  different  parts  of  a  morning's  mail 
which  bring  appeals  (a)  for  a  month's  rent  for  a 
consumptive;  (b)  for  hospital  care  for  consumptive; 

(c)  for  such  hospital  care  plus  relief  for  his  family ; 

(d)  for  change  of  climate  for  a  consumptive;    (e) 

for  house  to  house  nursing  of  consumptives;  (f)  for 

70 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  71 

house  to  house  instruction  of  consumptives;  (g)  for 
a  chain  of  tuberculosis  clinics;  (h)  for  an  educa- 
tional and  promoting  agency  to  get  the  whole  city 
—  government,  philanthropy  and  industry  —  un- 
der 100%  of  the  load  of  caring  for  consumptives ; 
(i)  for  an  agency  to  get  the  whole  state  —  govern- 
ment, philanthropy  and  industry  —  under  100%  of 
the  load  of  caring  for  consumptives;  (j)  for  a  na- 
tional association  for  the  study  and  prevention  of 
tuberculosis. 

Each  succeeding  batch  of  letters  increases  my  con- 
viction that  men  and  women  whose  dividends  flow 
from  nation  wide  resources  and  whose  acquaintance 
and  interest  are  nation  wide  will  some  day  welcome 
the  opportunity  afforded  by  appealing  letters  to 
discover  and  to  attack  nation  wide  needs. 

So  far  as  nation  wide  attack  has  been  begun,  it 
is  reflected  in  our  letters, —  Child  Labor  Committee, 
Anti-Tuberculosis  League,  National  Consumers' 
League,  American  Association  for  the  Improvement 
of  Labor  Legislation,  National  Municipal  League, 
National  Mothers'  Congress,  National  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People,  National 
Civic  Federation,  Anti-Cigarette  League,  etc.  (See 
New  York  Charities  Directory.) 

The  nation  wide  needs  here  noted  are  for  the  most 
part  needs  which  are  not  being  attacked  on  a  large 
scale  either  locally  or  centrally.  They  include  work 
which  must  be  attacked  locally  and  also  work  which 
is  needed  everywhere  but  should  be  attacked  by  cen- 


72  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

tral  national  agencies.  Not  only  will  you  find  many 
needs  not  quoted,  but  the  list  does  not  even  include 
all  the  needs  that  are  disclosed  by  our  letters.  If 
you  think  that  the  best  way  to  meet  one  or  more 
of  these  needs  is  to  neglect  them,  please  consider  the 
alternative  of  a  nation  wide  educational  work  that 
will  prevent  the  social  maladjustments  which  those 
needs  reflect.  I  am  grouping  them  under  eight 
headings : 

1.  To    Universalize   Present    Knowledge    and   Its 

Use 

2.  Search  and  Research  for  New  Knowledge 

3.  Salvage  —  Relief  and  Unremunerative  Aid 

•  4.   Salvage  —  Investment  with  Chance  of  Profit 

5.  4%     to    6%     Investments    Combining    Public 

Service  and  Private  Profit 

6.  To   Correct  Individual  and  Social  Maladjust- 

ments 

7.  To  Utilize  By-Products 

8.  To  Expose  and  Stop  Frauds 

i    To  Universalize  Present  Knowledge  and  Its  Use 

Discover  and  aim  at  100%  tasks 

Educational  funds  for  counteracting  the  effect  of 
aphorisms,  smart  sayings  and  Mother  Goose 
tales  about  society,  philanthropy,  religion  and 
government,  such  as  "  People  come  pretty  near 
getting  what  they  want  in  government."  This 
is  no  more  true  than  that  people  come  pretty 
near  getting  what  they  want  in  street  cars, 
Sunday  schools,  magazines  or  recreation. 
"  People  "  do  come  pretty  near  being  satisfied 
with  what  they  get.  When  someone  aggres- 
sively offers  "  people  "  a  better  article,  "  peo- 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  73 

pic  "  show  sense  as  a  rule  by  preferring  that 
better  article 

Preserve  or  justify  the  immigrant's  ideals  of 
American  freedom  and  teach  him  concretely  how 
to  use  it 

Permanent  private  and  public  national  health  or- 
ganizations 

Handbooks,  photographs  and  teachers  to  help 
one  community  utilize  the  experience  of  other 
communities 

Edit,  circulate,  popularize  and  follow-up  minutes 
of  scientific,  educational,  social  and  reform 
bodies 

Annihilate  the  time  between  the  first  suggestion 
of  a  need  to  one  or  more  philanthropists  and 
the  final  action  with  regard  to  that  need,  as 
modern  capital  makes  profit  from  annihilating 
space  and  time  (New  York  was  just  as  ready 
for  salary  loan  reforms  in  1905  as  in  1911. 
In  1906  I  wrote  to  several  large  givers  after 
receiving  the  last  $36.25  toward  a  loan  made 
in  1905  to  two  young  men  who  had  been  cruelly 
fleeced :  "  There  are  thousands  and  thousands 
of  young  men  and  women  receiving  good  wages 
but  without  any  credit  except  personal  integ- 
rity and  position.  When  distress  comes  their 
one  resort  is  the  loan  shark  who  takes  an  at- 
tachment on  their  salaries  and  from  that  time 
on  owns  them  body  and  soul,  for  unless  they 
pay  promptly  their  employer  will  discharge 
them  at  the  first  suggestion  of  enforcing  the 
attachment.  If  some  men  would  put  up  $50,- 
000  or  $100,000  to  pay  loans  conservatively 
made  to  this  type  of  man  or  woman,  the  inter- 
est on   the  amounts   returned   would  justify   a 


74  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

business  that  would  regularly  cater  to  a  need 
which  bids  fair  to  increase  instead  of  decrease 
under  present  industrial  conditions  ") 

After  college  and  after  school  instruction  in  citi- 
zenship 

Instruction  in  citizenship  at  school  through  pupil 
self  government,  text  books,  professorships  and 
lectures 

Case  and  clinical  method  of  teaching  law,  medi- 
cine, statistics,  government,  school  administra- 
tion, agriculture  (Several  medical  institutions 
have  been  forced  out  of  business  by  the  mere 
report  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  that  they 
did  not  provide  clinical  or  hospital  instruction. 
By  what  warrant,  pray,  of  logic  or  justice  may 
the  Carnegie  Foundation  continue  to  approve 
or  fail  to  disapprove  credentials  to  instruct 
men  in  the  management  of  government  without 
similar  clinical  experience  and  without  even  text 
books  and  lectures  based  upon  clinical  experi- 
ence?) 

A  national  crusade  to  stop  polygamy  or  celestial 
marriage 

Improvement  in  the  teaching  and  practice  of  ob- 
stetrics and  instruction  of  midwives 

Insure  higher  standards  of  physical  training  and 
physical  welfare  work  in  all  schools 

Change  the  reputation  of  public  alms  houses,  hos- 
pitals and  public  relief  by  making  them  efficient 

Secure  proper  inspection  of  banks  (Is  there  any 
more  reason  why  a  poor  woman  should  be  told 
"  it  serves  her  right  "  when  a  bank  fails  than 
when  the  Titanic  is  found  to  have  too  few  life 
boats?) 

A    mild   censorship   over   the   catalogues   and   an- 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  75 

nounccmcnts  of  business  colleges,  art  schools, 
music  teachers,  etc  —  It  is  much  more  expensive 
than  my  people  expected  and  my  father's  sal- 
ary is  not  sufficient  to  keep  me  here 

Sanitary  censorship  of  moving  picture  show 
places 

Secure  notification  of  cancer  and  arrange  to  in- 
form all  known  cancer  cases  and  their  families, 
either  directly  or  through  local  boards  of 
health,  about  fake  remedies,  available  treatment 
and  every  new  fact  about  this  disease 
(Daughter  writes  of  mother  /  dont  know  how 
I  can  ever  watch  it  eat  her  life  away) 

Develop  convalescent  follow-up  methods  by  hos- 
pitals and  dispensaries  (/  was  operated  on 
three  months  ago  for  appendicitis  and  am  not 
able  to  work) 

Standardize  treatment  and  prevention  of  typhoid 
through  proper  health  supervision,  inoculation 
by  dead  typhoid  germs,  etc 

Give  all  cities  the  benefit  of  recent  advances  in 
protecting  milk  supplies,  saving  babies  and  in- 
forming mothers   and  expectant  mothers 

Make  instruction  in  fire  prevention  part  of  voca- 
tional training 

Provide  for  spare  time  and  recreation  in  rural 
districts 

Universalize  facts  about  detecting  and  stopping 
transmissible  diseases  (/  have  a  boy  of  four- 
teen almost  entirely  deaf  from  measles) 

Public  medical  supervision  through  house  to  house 
physicians  and  nurses  and  central  hospitals,  in 
rural  districts  and  small  cities  which  will  never 
be  able  to  support  efficient  private  hospitals 

Universal  health  campaign  through  press  notices 


76  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

and  articles  furnished  by  a  central  corps  of 
writers 

Aggressive  health  administration  by  states,  par- 
ticularly over  rural  and  semi-rural  districts, 
with  inspectors  and  lecturers,  bulletins,  exhibits 
and  power  to  compel  local  compliance  with 
state  standards 

Enforcement  of  housing  regulations  in  small  com- 
munities and  rural  districts 

Voluntary  sanitary  organizations 

State  responsibility  for  the  child  placing  work 
of  private  and  religious  agencies  as  well  as  of 
alms  houses  and  state  boards 

Use  of  schools  as  social  centers  everywhere 

Physical  examination  of  school  children 

Follow-up  work  for  physically  defective  children 

Instruction  in  sex  hygiene  of  teachers,  nurses, 
physicians,  parents  and  children 

Instruction  by  correspondence  for  women  who 
write  that  they  get  sick  headaches  and  are 
nervously  broken  down,  especially  in  how  to 
prevent  and  cure  tuberculosis,  save  babies,  care 
for  school  children,  etc 

"  Don'ts  "  and  "  Trys  "  for  numerous  groups  (in- 
cluding press  and  public  officials)  trying  to 
work  out  sickness  and  flood  accident  policies, 
old  age  pension,  self  sustaining  or  "  state  par- 
ticipating "  relief  plans 

A  central  point  from  which  those  who  are  dealing 
and  struggling  with  prison  reform  can  get  the 
information  they  need 

Right  standards  of  compelling,  selecting,  reward- 
ing and  using  educational  prison  labor 

Clearing  houses  for  information  with  respect  to 
men  wanting  jobs  and  jobs  wanting  men 


Loaned  by  Fruit  and  Flower  Guild,  N.  Y.  City 


by  Friendly  Aid  Society,  N.  Y.  City 


APFKALS   WITHOUT   WORDS 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  77 

Libraries  thai  will  serve  those  who  cannot  go  to 
libraries  and  in  addition  will  stimulate  a  desire 
to  read  where  it  does  not  exist 

Education  for  business,  industry  and  agriculture 
in  regular  schools 

Education  by  correspondence  and  by  traveling 
teachers  for  those  unable  to  attend  central 
universities,   including  a  negro  lecture  bureau 

Practical  social  work  programs  for  churches  in- 
cluding adequate  compensation  for  the  coun- 
irjf  parson  and  the  country  parson's  wife 

Music  clinics  or  settlements  in  all  large  cities  — 
everywhere  recognition  of  educational  and  vo- 
cational value  of  proper  instruction  in  music 

Voluntary  organizations  everywhere  for  increas- 
ing public  school  efficiency  including  state  and 
county  supervision 

Make  known  universally  the  needs  and  advanced 
steps   of  public  schools 

Strong  civic  bodies  seeing  to  it  that  government 

—  the  greatest  benefactor  and  protector  —  is 
efficient,  and  making  impossible  unrepresenta- 
tive, undemocratic,  inefficient  municipal  and 
state  and  national  government 

Clearing  houses  for  community  needs 

Reduce,  by  education,  funeral  expenses  among  the 
poor 

Show  for  every  community  for  what  percentage 
of  each  problem  philanthropy  is  organized  and 
for  each  agency  what  percentage  of  its  prob- 
lems it  meets 

To  keep  the  discussion  of  controversial  questions 

—  prohibition,  trade  unionism,  socialism,  voca- 
tional training,  treatment  of  the  social  evil,  sex 
hygiene  instruction,  eugenics  —  on  a  fact  basis 


78  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Publication  funds  for  distributing  important  lit- 
erature among  agencies  that  need  it  whether 
they  already  see  their  need  or  not,  such  as 
photographs  of  budget  exhibits,  Philadelphia's 
handbook  on  pure  milk  exhibit,  digest  of  the 
reports  of  American  teachers  to  English 
schools  heretofore  unpublished  for  want  of 
funds  although  they  contain  matter  more  help- 
ful than  several  million  dollars  given  directly 
to  education  (Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr., 
distributed  among  normal  school  principals, 
court  officers,  etc,  the  Chicago  Vice  Commis- 
sion's report) 

Secure  for  standards  of  will  making  the  universal 
discussion  and  the  efficiency  tests  which  are  be- 
ing sought  for  labor  legislation,  school  effi- 
ciency, cleanliness  of  milk,  etc.  An  eminent 
lawyer  wrote  me  in  1908: 

I  have  often  had  testators  express  their  desire  to 
do  something  for  the  cause  of  suffering  humanity, 
and  yet  express  their  entire  ignorance  of  what  would 
be  a  good  thing  to  do,  and  on  those  occasions  of 
course  I  have  given  the  best  suggestions  at  my  dis- 
posal, and  I  would  have  been  very  glad  to  have  had 
the  advantage  of  systematically  prepared  sugges- 
tions issued  by  some  reliable  agency 

2  Search  and  Research  for  New  Knowledge 

Discover  and  aim  at  100% 

Clearing  houses  for  use  of  appeals 

Increased  revenues  for  local  and  national  research 

agencies  providing  for  measurement  of  results 

from  past  researches 
School  inquiries  and  social  surveys 
Survey  of  the  whole  -field  of  education 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  79 

• 
Scientific  study  of  settlements  and  other  forms  of 
social  work  from  the  standpoint  of  alternative 
services  open  to  the  rich,  to  the  volunteer  and 
to  the  community  as  a  whole  (Test  the  ac- 
cumulated evidence  that  one  boy  left  his  posi- 
tion as  errand  boy  to  become  a  wood  carver; 
another  left  a  candy  factory  to  take  up  the 
modeling  trade;  a  third  was  inspired  to  go  to 
Cooper  Union) 
Study  and  combat  alcoholism:  //  the  saloon  can 
be  outlawed  while  our  state  is  still  young  and 
our  cities  comparatively  smally  we  are  confident 
that  we  shall  never  have  slums  or  tenement  dis- 
tricts 
A  thorough  study  of  the  results  of  college  loan 
funds  (If  helping  boys  and  girls  is  a  good 
thing  for  the  infinitesimal  few  who  have  re- 
ceived that  help,  should  not  an  intelligent 
country,  as  a  social  investment,  universalize 
the  opportunity  for  all  who  are  fitted?  What 
can  be  more  demoralizing  than  loans  that  need 
not  be  repaid?  Social  standing  —  derived 
from  others'  funds  —  which  misrepresents  the 
resources  of  college  men  or  college  women  is  al- 
most certain  to  injure  the  bearers  of  inflated 
reputation.  Three  of  the  most  pitiable  per- 
versions of  manhood  whom  I  ever  knew  in  col- 
lege were  three  men  who  cut  a  dash  socially, 
wore  particularly  nice  clothes,  had  money  for 
treating,  and  about  whom  it  gradually  leaked 
out  that  two  of  them  were  spending  the  savings 
of  mothers  who  took  in  washings  and  the  third 
was  a  charity  pupil  sent  by  a  church.  I  can 
remember  with  what  contempt  I  heard  this  last 
boy  describe  the  various  ruses  and  false  ac- 
counts by  which  he  secured  spending  money  in 


80  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

the  name  of  bay  rum,  hair  cuts,  contributions 
to  foreign  missions,  etc.  The  mistaken  high 
school  boy  mentioned  on  page  158,  by  deliver- 
ing papers  from  four  to  seven  in  the  morning 
and  two  to  four  in  the  afternoon,  thought  By 
this  means  I  have  been  able  to  get  out  with 
others  socially  and  at  the  same  time  dress  well. 
By  keeping  in  reserve  as  to  where  1  got  my 
funds  I  have  been  able  to  rise  a  great  deal 
faster) 

Get  the  truth  about  the  relation  of  industrial  in- 
capacity to  criminality  (An  ex-convict  writes, 
How  sorry  I  am  to  have  a  knowledge  of  any 
trade  and  to  be  unfit  for  manual  hard  work) 

Do  for  health  department  treatment  of  prevent- 
able diseases  what  the  Rockefeller  Institute  for 
Medical  Research  is  doing  for  other  biolog- 
ical and  physiological  phenomena  of  these  dis- 
eases 

Learn  whether  what  society  does  to  the  white 
slave  and  to  itself  through  its  magistrates, 
courts,  houses  of  correction,  probation  officers 
and  commissioners  of  licenses,  etc,  is  more 
harmful  than  what  is  done  to  society  by  white 
slaves  or  slavers  (The  advantage  of  starting 
with  wrongs  committed  by  society  rather  than 
with  harm  done  to  society  is  that  a  vastly 
larger  number  of  agencies  and  individuals  will 
cooperate  in  the  study) 

Study  in  all  states  the  judiciary's  share  of  re- 
sponsibility for  crime  and  misgovernment 

Work  out  new  schedules  of  business  risk  based 
on  detailed  investigations  so  that  lower  interest 
and  greater  credit  will  go  where  they  are  de- 
served 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  81 

Study  prison  management  (There  is  more  ma- 
terial in  letters  to  Mrs.  Harriman  from  men  in 
jails  or  from  their  families  and  from  prison 
reformers,  indicating  the  nation's  opportunity 
to  corect  prison  evils,  than  in  Galsworthy's 
Justice) 

Learn  the  state's  responsibility  for  local  educa- 
tion and  most  effective  methods  of  supervision 

3  Salvage  —  Relief  and  Unremunerative  Aid 

Discover  and  aim  at  100% 

A  central  clearing  house  which  will  guarantee  a 
hearing  for  the  needy,  for  genius,  for  misfits, 
and  make  available  to  all  who  appeal,  including 
prospective  givers,  both  facts  and  expert  ad- 
vice (There  are  uses  for  misfits.  There  are 
many  men  dealing  in  second  hand  clothing, 
furniture,  books,  tottering  factories  who  make 
fortunes  out  of  misfits.  There  are  returns,  if 
not  fortunes,  for  those  who  will  study  and  place 
human  misfits.  Just  as  it  is  good  business  to 
employ  experts  to  go  from  enterprise  to  enter- 
prise and  learn  why  they  are  on  the  point  of 
failing,  so  it  can  be  made  good  business  to 
learn  of  men  who  are  on  the  margin) 

It  is  cheaper  to  stake  the  physically  and  men- 
tally handicapped  to  business,  properly  se- 
lected, than  to  support  them  as  parasites  or  in- 
competent competitors 

Central  legal  aid  dispensaries  for  communities  to 
insure  equality  before  and  behind  the  law.  My 
(stenographer's)  salary  is  unpaid  for  months. 
I  am  afraid  to  leave  for  fear  they  will  never 
pay  me.  Or,  my  husband  could  prove  nothing 
because  his  check  books  showing  payment  of 
$2,000  on  the  mortgage  had  been  lost  in  a  fire 


82  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


The  World:- 

" Speak  to  that  fellow  >    1  tell  you  no!' 
rle's  only  a  sailor;  let  him  go!" 


last  year  (Here  money  must  be  spent  out  of 
proportion  to  the  individual  case  involved  in 
order  to  maintain  the  principle  of  equality  be- 
fore the  law.  It  is  quite  as  important,  too,  to 
educate  not  to  start  "  strike  suits "  against 
corporations  as  to  serve  notice  on  corporations 
and  the  rich  and  strong  that  they  cannot  evade 
responsibility  for  accidents) 

Assist  and  instruct  people  who  are  compelled  by 
health  quarantine,  compulsory  education,  child 
labor  laws,  etc,  to  make  sacrifices  which  seem 
to  the  victims  worse  than  the  evils  from  which 
the  public  wishes  to  protect  itself 

Detect,  test  and  advance  talent  for  writing,  paint- 
ing, drawing,  singing,  as  capital  bores  for  oil 
or  prospects  for  gold 

Establish  relief  funds  for  cases  of  distress  beyond 
the  possibilities  of  skill  or  funds  in  communities 
where  the  need  arises,  such  as  operation  for 
cancer  in  places  twenty  miles  from  the  nearest 
hospital 

"  After  care  "  for  the  convalescent  hospital  pa- 
tient, insane  and  ex-convict 

Funds  to  secure  extension  of  self  pensioning 
schemes  among  large  groups  of  workers,  such 
as  railroad  employees 

Find  and  develop  talented  teachers  (As  if 
competent  judges  of  music  were  to  keep  on  the 
watch  all  over  the  country  for  the  appearance 
of  voices  of  unusual  promise  and  then  make 
sure  that  the  possessor  of  such  a  voice  should 
not  fail  of  an  opportunity  to  cultivate  it  up  to 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  83 

the  limit  of  its  powers  —  although  in  this  case 
a  variety  of  talent  is  to  be  sought  to  meet  a 
variety  of  new  needs.  Talent  for  educational 
administration  is  particularly  in  demand) 

Emergency  relief  for  persons  whose  distress  is 
due  to  sickness,  whose  business  capital  or  earn- 
ing power  is  threatened  by  protracted  illness 
(A  girl  of  22  needs  $200  for  an  operation  after 
which  I  shall  be  well.  It  will  cost  from  twenty- 
five  cents  to  $5  to  learn  whether  there  is  prac- 
tical certainty  that  the  operation  will  give  the 
cure.  Suppose  the  girl  is  allowed  five  years  to 
pay  back  $200  with  interest.  In  those  five 
years,  if  she  does  not  have  the  operation,  it  will 
cost  in  the  Texas  village  involved  at  least  $750 
to  keep  her  as  an  invalid.  Should  society 
equip  itself  to  make  the  investment?  A  father 
owning  his  home  gives  references,  and  writes: 
Sincerely  praying  that  you  will  relieve  me  of 
suffering  and  put  me  in  a  way  to  work  and  sup- 
port my  family,  A  mother  writes,  It  takes 
all  we  can  rake  and  scrape  to  pay  the  doctor's 
bill  and  cannot  pay  it  all) 

Promote  campaign  for  dental  hygiene  (founding 
a  national  false  teeth  cooperative  society  to 
syndicate  knowledge  about  oral  hygiene,  both 
the  repair  side  and  education  side, —  Must  buy 
a  set  of  false  teeth  to  preserve  my  health  but 
cannot  do  it  on  $10  a  week) 

Syndicate  knowledge  about  heirlooms,  tapestries, 
etc,  for  sale  which  families  are  unable  to  dis- 
pose of  through  ordinary  commercial  channels 
without  incurring  local  criticism  or  sacrificing 
values 

Help  in  caring  for  incurables  when  home  care  is 
necessary      (A  mother  sends  photograph  of  in- 


84  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

valid  boy,  22  years  old,  who  is  too  heavy  to 
carry  up  and  down  stairs) 

Adequate  local  relief  funds  —  (A  stitch  in  time 
saves  nine.  Many  a  poor  grocer  and  milkman 
—  there  are  really  places  where  milkmen  are 
poor  —  carries  along  his  unfortunate  neighbor 
until  his  own  family  falls  below  the  margin  of 
self  support.  We  were  quarantined  for  two 
weeks  and  I  could  not  even  do  my  washes. 
Early  in  the  fall  the  mills  closed  down  compel- 
ling the  older  children  to  leave  the  town  to  seek 
work  elsewhere ',  thus  depriving  us  of  their 
board  money  ,  .  .  I  owe  our  milkman  $18 
or  $W  as  he  served  us  all  winter,  and  while 
baby  was  sick,  and  he  is  a  poor  man  and  I  know 
he  needs  it  now.     .     .     .     ) 

Expert  analysis,  on  business  terms,  of  impecuni- 
ous inventors'  claims,  and  protection  of  their 
rights 

Old  age  pensions,  retirement  or  overage  funds, 
for  ministers  and  ministers'  wives,  worn  out 
country  educators,  teachers,  nurses,  and  other 
semi-public  servants  (/  was  fourteen  years 
missionary  on  the  frontier;  am  getting  old  and 
for  two  years  have  not  been  able  to  work) 

THE  PENSION  AND  RELIEF  OF  CLERGY 
WIDOWS  AND  ORPHANS 

"A  Concise,  Hard-Hitting 
Forceful  Statement"* 


ACTUAL  CONDITIONS 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  85 

Help  for  aged  persons  who  want  to  hold  their 
homes  until  the  end  and  will  pledge  property 
to  secure  loan  (7/  we  cannot  pay  our  mort- 
gage there  is  nothing  left  for  us  but  the  poor 
farm) 

Relief  from  loan  extortion  —  chattel,  land,  sala- 
ries 

Hospital  or  work  treatment  for  alcoholics 

Public  assistance  for  those  dependent  upon  pa- 
tients cared  for  in  public  hospitals,  insane  asy- 
lums, jails,  etc 

Self  supporting  house  to  house  nursing  or  atten- 
tion within  reach  of  small  incomes  (Mother 
was  taken  with  —  space  left  evidently  until 
writer  could  learn  to  spell  paralytic  —  stroke 
which  left  her  left  side  all  affected.  She  has 
no  use  of  her  left  hand.  I  have  all  the  care  of 
her.  I  have  to  dress  and  undress  and  put  her 
to  bed.  I  have  been  unable  to  go  to  work  for 
I  cannot  leave  her.  Our  income  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  keep  us  out  of  debt,  so  we  owe  the  gro- 
cery store,  doctor  and  drygoods  store.  I  have 
to  be  up  in  the  night  two  or  three  times.  I  am 
doing  some  washing  for  some  girls  in  order  to 
get  money,  but  it  is  hard  on  me  to  do  both) 

Schools  for  out  of  door  instruction  and  employ- 
ment for  boys  and  girls  unable  to  do  the  usual 
course,  where  a  practical  education  necessitat- 
ing considerable  out  of  door  work  could  be  ob- 
tained and  prevent  threatened  serious  illness 

Loan  funds  for  ambitious  young  folks  who  will 
otherwise  break  themselves  down  earning  and 
saving  enough  to  put  themselves  through 
school  (There  must  be  some  way  of  ascertain- 
ing the  risk  of  such  business  on  a  large  scale 


86  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

so  that  borrowing  money  on  future  earning 
power  will  be  as  businesslike  and  legitimate  as 
borrowing  on  a  watch) 
Pensions  to  save  mothers  from  the  gauntlet  of 
sons-in-law,  daughters-in-law,  brothers,  sisters 
and  other  relatives.  .  .  .  The  soldier  who 
takes  life  is  pensioned;  the  mother  who  gives 
life,  who  plans  most  of  the  joys  of  life  and  who 
instils  virtue,  alas!  is  forgotten 

4  Salvage  —  Investment  with  Chance  of  Profit 

Discover  and  aim  at  100% 

Among  the  wastes  to  be  prevented  is  the  waste 
of  willingness  on  the  part  of  those  who  offer 
to  stake  their  brains,  experience  and  willing- 
ness against  the  money  of  those  able  to  give 
money 

Working  capital  for  men  otherwise  forced  by 
sickness  or  accident  to  drop  from  the  ranks  of 
merchant  or  farmer  to  day  laborer  (The 
doctor  said  "  Take  her  to  the  mountains.9'  I 
mortgaged  the  farm  for  $1,500.  Change  of 
climate  did  not  help;  she  died.  I  am  starting 
again  as  day  laborer) 

A  central  agency  to  save  legitimately  earned 
equities  jeopardized  by  sickness  or  accident 
(One  of  the  most  dramatic  of  all  appeals  to 
Mrs.  Harriman  was  from  a  woman  who  asked 
for  a  few  thousands  to  tide  over  a  squall;  in  a 
few  days  asked  for  more  thousands ;  a  third  let- 
ter said  if  not  helped  she  would  go  to  the  wall 
within  24  hours  and  lose  $30,000;  the  fourth 
asked  for  help  to  secure  a  position :  /  have  al- 
ways thought  I  would  make  a  good  lady's  maid. 
How  I  wish  I  could  cook!     Men  of  highest  in- 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  87 

tegrity  and  exceptional  business  ability  are  fre- 
quently "  pinched "  through  no  fault  of  their 
own.  Many  a  Marconi  and  Edison  has  writ- 
ten, One  of  your  cards  and  one  half  minute  of 
your  writing  can  save  me  months  of  time  and 
trouble) 
Systematize  employment  of  prisoners  so  that  they 
will  earn  not  only  for  the  state  but  for  them- 
selves and  families  (A  very  small  percentage 
of  quarrels  and  fights  lead  to  imprisonment  of 
more  than  one  participant.  The  chief  differ- 
ence between  the  fighter  who  goes  to  jail  and 
the  fighter  who  stays  out  is  not  moral  or  in- 
tellectual or  social,  but  one  of  relative  efficiency 
in  fighting) 

5  4%  to  6%   Investments  Combining  Public 
Service  and  Private  Profit 

Discover  and  aim  at  100% 

Application  of  Childs  Restaurant  idea  to  board- 
ing houses 

Cooperative  hotels  and  lodging  houses  for  work- 
ing women  on  a  commercial  basis 

Administrative  and  social  surveys  and  installa- 
tion of  adequate  accounting  and  reporting 
methods  in  public  and  semi-public  business,  pri- 
vate, charitable  and  religious   institutions 

Home  building  system  for  opening  land  not  only 
to  those  who  have  money  but  to  those  who  have 
not 

A  model  extensive  factory  system  that  would  net 
capital  4%  or  5%  and  let  the  earnings  above 
that  limit  go  to  make  higher  wages ,  shorter 
hours  and  lower  prices 

Search,  detect,  select  executive  ability  and  stake 
it  to  working  capital 


88  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Educational  moving  pictures  for  churches,  schools 
(and  all  play  houses)  at  low  profit 

Mobilize  capital  and  loans  —  on  character,  earn- 
ing power,  chattel,  business  —  as  the  mail  or- 
der store  has  brought  together  manufacturer 
and  most  remote  consumer  with  profit  to  both 
—  (Formation  of  a  permanent  trust  or  founda- 
tion fund  for  several  hundred  thousand  dollars 
that  could  be  loaned  among  our  (colored)  peo- 
ple at  4-%  to  4-^%  interest  on  first  mortgage; 
to  assist  and  encourage  the  development  of 
small  farms  and  comfortable  homes,  provision 
could  be  made  to  use  a  portion  of  the  interest 
in  building  suitable  rural  schools,  for,  as  a  rule, 
the  south  is  very  deficient  in  this  particular,  es- 
pecially as  concerning  the  negro  schools) 

Loans  to  farmers  forced  under  by  drought, —  no 
crops,  no  credit,  no  seed,  no  earning  power 
(Is  it  not  cheaper  to  tide  over  a  solvent  man 
than  to  replace  a  bankrupt?  After  my  acci- 
dent I  had  to  go  to  the  hospital  and  have  my 
leg  amputated  and  was  forced  to  mortgage  my 
claim  and  lost  it  after  the  drought.  One  let- 
ter even  proposed  to  buy  up  on  a  large  scale 
farms  sacrificed  because  of  drought.  They  are 
needed  and  will  bring  big  profits.  In  North- 
ern Wisconsin  bankers  found  that  farmers  were 
selling  their  cows  and  thus  losing  the  locality's 
capital  as  well  as  the  farmers'  capital.  So 
they  brought  the  farmers  together  and  offered 
funds  to  tide  them  over  so  that  they  might  use 
their  present  capital  to  produce  income.  The 
time  will  come  when  either  private  capital 
must  fill  in  this  gap,  or  else  states  and 
counties  will  be  required  to  do  it.     Is  there  not 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  89 

a  margin  of  safety  and  profit  between  the  gilt 
edge  security  where  the  interest  is  8%  or  10% 
and  investment  proved  safe  upon  investigation 
at  4J%  and  5%?  Is  there  not  for  mobilized 
capital  a  margin  of  safety  to  provide  money 
loans  not  considered  desirable  from  the  stand- 
point of  limited  local  resources?  All  safety 
lines  thus  far  drawn  for  loans  in  rural  districts 
and  on  small  business  are  based  upon  inade- 
quate data  and  disregard  absolutely  sound 
prospects.  //  conditions  here  were  normal  I 
would  be  able  to  secure  from  $25,000  to  $50,- 

000  on  the  merit  of  the  proposition; 

1  cannot  get  any  loans  here  as  the  banks  are  in 
about  the  same  condition  as  we;  .  .  .  My 
$6,000  property  must  be  sold  because  ill  health 
compels  me  to  change  climate.  If  they  know  I 
will  be  forced  to  sell  for  a  song) 

Help  to  tide  over  dull  seasons  not  only  for  farm- 
ers, but  for  business  ability  everywhere  — 
(Crops  have  been  so  poor  that  nobody  will  loan 
money.     There  won't  be  enough  to  feed  horses) 

Loans  on  a  large  scale  to  students  of  promise  to 
be  regarded  as  business  propositions  and 
sought  by  loaner  the  way  a  bank  seeks  depos- 
its, not  for  the  student's  sake,  but  to  make  a 
fair  return  on  capital  —  (A  young  man  prom- 
ises in  return  for  medical  education  to  pay 
you  back  as  soon  as  I  become  a  practicing  phy- 
sician and  will  pay  to  educate  at  least  one 
young  man  desiring  to  be  a  doctor  but  being 
poor  like  myself.  The  tests  should  be  the 
tests  of  business,  in  spite  of  as  well  as  because 
of,  the  education  and  humanitarian  motive  that 
prompts    it.     The    failure   of   college    students 


90  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

to  pay  back  loans  would  probably  be  found, 
upon  investigation,  to  be  due  not  to  the  fact 
that  they  mortgage  their  business  capital  in 
advance  or  that  they  do  not  have  to  earn  be- 
fore they  spend,  but  to  the  absence  of  a  busi- 
ness basis,  i.e.,  that  the  first  delinquency  was 
not  followed  up  as  a  collection  agency  follows 
up  an  instalment  delinquent.  The  personal 
origin  of  most  of  these  loan  funds  has  put  a 
premium  on  an  unbusinesslike  attitude  among 
beneficiaries.  Wall  street  makes  money  on 
backing  brains  and  knowledge.  It  does  not 
seek  deposits  from  the  "  good  boy "  of  the 
town  with  leanings  to  the  ministry  or  other 
forms  of  alleged  altruistic  activity.  A  risk 
that  may  appear  high  among  200  students 
might  be  found  small  among  20,000) 

A  money  making  employment  agency  for  well- 
equipped  men  and  women  which  should  do  for 
a  share  in  the  salary  increment  what  the  Train- 
ing School  for  Public  Service  and  college  fel- 
lowships and  scholarships  do  without  sharing 
in  salary  increases 

Reduction  of  middleman's  profits  and  economic 
waste  in  distributing  the  necessities  of  life, — 
food,  fuel,  housing,  funeral  services,  and  possi- 
bly medical,  dental,  nursing  and  legal  services 

Cooperative  stores  in  cities  and  cooperative  en- 
terprises of  every  description  in  rural  districts 
along  the  lines  that  have  been  successfully 
worked  out  in  Ireland  under  the  leadership  of 
Sir  Horace  Plunkett 

Anticipatory  reservations  analogous  to  city 
planning,  i.e.,  guarantee  adequate  park  space, 
prevent  the  cutting  up  of  beaches  and  vacant 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  91 

lands  near  large  cities.  Enable  institutions  to 
take  options  on  property  necessary  to  their 
success.  In  1912  a  man  gave  $250,000  for  sci- 
entific work  for  which  he  had  refused  to  buy  a 
profitable  option  in  1911 
Popularize  "  cugiving  "  —  straight  giving  —  and 
"  euthenics  "  —  making  things  straight, —  as 
money  is  popularizing  eugenics  —  making  peo- 
ple straight.  The  first  lawyers  who  qualify  as 
consulting  experts  on  will- making  will  unques- 
tionably build  up  a  profitable  business  analo- 
gous to  other  legal  specialties,  such  as  the  pat- 
ent business 

6  To  Correct  Individual  and  Social  Maladjustments 

Provide  for  keeping  mothers  with  children  —  (/ 
have  poor  health.  It  puts  me  crazy  to  be  away 
from  the  children.  I  wish  I  could  keep  them 
home  and  send  them  to  school) 

Special  interest  in  the  widow  left  with  opportuni- 
ties and  obligation  to  serve  society  —  care  for 
her  children  —  without  means  (/  am  working 
for  $5.50  a  week  and  trying  to  keep  this  little 
home  outside  the  city  for  myself  and  children. 
I  could  do  as  many  are  doing  who  work  for 
small  wages,  but  with  God's  help  I  will  live  a 
clean  life) 

Anticipate  dissolution,  consolidation  and  slack 
seasons,  "  efficiency  reductions,"  so  as  to  find 
places  for  employees  in  advance  of  dismissal 
as  the  English  law  compels  cities,  when  clear- 
ing out  tenement  districts,  to  provide  in  ad- 
vance for  the  proper  housing  of  the  dispos- 
sessed (Where  he  used  to  work  extra  hours 
now  the  mines  only  work  three  or  four  days  a 


92  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

week.  Capital  makes  money  by  anticipating 
non-employment  of  capital.  It  can  make 
money  anticipating  non-employment   of  labor) 

Reduce  the  discrepancies  that  now  exist  in  the  in- 
terest rates  of  the  town  of  1,000  and  a  town 
of  500,000  within  500  miles  of  each  other 
(Is  there  today  any  reason  why  a  hard  working 
farmer  within  telephone  distance  of  the  city 
that  needs  his  product  should  be  penalized  in 
his  interest  rate  because  he  happens  to  be  on  a 
farm  instead  of  betting  on  stock  fluctuations? 
The  man  who  is  progressive  enough  to  get  a 
mail  order  catalogue  may  obtain  comforts  and 
luxuries  at  almost  city  prices.  Why  must  a 
Texan  owning  518  acres  of  land  pay  8%  in- 
terest? Why  should  a  man  who  has  worked 
every  day  from  morning  to  night  for  seven- 
teen years  need  to  cry  —  /  am  not  starving 
or  naked  .  .  .  //  only  there  was  some- 
where for  hard  working  people  to  borrow  with- 
out paying  so  much  interest) 

Make  educational  missionaries  —  under  state  su- 
pervision —  of  accident  insurance  companies, 
and  extend  their  services  to  include  business 
risks  not  heretofore  insured 

7  To   Utilize   By-Products 

Discover  and  aim  at  100% 

Clearing  houses  for  those  needing  clothes  and 
those  willing  to  give  away  old  clothes  and  old 
magazines  or  to  sell  them  cheaply.  Few  char- 
itable agencies  have  exploited  these  by-prod- 
ucts. Yet  they  play  an  important  part  in  al- 
most all  relief  work.  The  University  of  Wis- 
consin has  revolutionized  university  extension 
and   library    methods    by    circulating    material 


NATION  WIDE  NEEDS  93 

from  old  magazines  among  lyceums,  women's 
clubs,  etc.  Once  haying  taken  the  cream  off 
the  natural  resources  of  the  country  capital 
goes  into  the  field  to  make  two  blades  grow 
where  one  grew  before.  There  are  here  large 
fields  of  neglected  assets  to  which  the  million- 
aire's waste  basket  points  the  way 

A  practical  program  for  partial  self-supporting 
work  for  convalescents  (7  must  remain  in  the 
sanitarium  three  months  more  but  could  do 
some  typewriting) 

Extend  the  idea  of  the  Woman's  Exchange  to  by- 
products of  interest  and  time  (One  man  seri- 
ously proposed  a  systematic  collection  of  drift 
wood  in  New  York's  harbors  to  be  split  by  men 
needing  employment  and  to  be  sold  or  given 
to  the  poor;  a  farmer's  wife  with  three 
children  wants  to  work  home  in  the  evenings 
and  wants  to  earn  enough  to  get  a  wash  ma- 
chine, sewing  machine  as  well  as  clothes) 

8  To  Expose  and  Stop  Frauds 

Discover  and  aim  at  100% 

Secure  state  supervision  of  medical,  dental,  op- 
tical and  osteopathic  practice  after,  as  well  as 
before,  certification 

Prosecute  mal-advice  and  mal-practice  on  the  poor 
and  middle  income  classes  by  sharks  and  incom- 
petents of  various  professions  (Preventable 
ignorance  or  mendacity  among  physicians  may 
do  more  harm  than  can  diseases.  A  husband 
had  spent  all  he  had  saved  for  a  specialist  to 
get  his  sight  back.  A  Presbyterian  minister 
wanted  money  to  try  a  futile  cure  for  blind- 
ness) 


b  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Ascertain,  publish  and  use  the  truth  about  patent 
medicines  and  fake  doctors  (/  have  a  young 
daughter  who  has  kidney  trouble.  I  sent  her 
back  east  for  a  cure  and  now  she  seems  worse. 
They  ask  for  payments  by  every  mail.  A 
mother  writes:  When  the  money  goes  to  the 
drug  store  and  doctor,  and  children  do  the 
housework,  we  are  quick  behind.  Persons  hav- 
ing cures  for  cancers  should  either  be  con- 
vinced that  they  have  not  the  cure  and  com- 
pelled to  stop  advertising,  or  should  be  helped 
to  develop  it) 


Tbis  Space  For  Writing  Messages 

go 


Hdv.  John  H.  Holmes, 
Pastor  Unitarian  Churoh 
UeTL-YorkCity. 


How  People  Came  to  Write 

There  was  a  time  when  death  was  considered  the 
great  leveller.  Next  in  rank  was  poverty.  Adver- 
tised wealth  seems  a  strong  competitor.  Scores  of 
writers  tell  Mrs.  Harriman  of  needs  which  they  say 
they  have  been  making  every  effort  to  conceal  from 
their  neighbors  and  often  their  own  husbands,  wives, 
fathers  or  children.  A  mother  who  had  gone  in 
debt  $150  without  her  husband's  knowledge  feels 
that  she  may  safely  tell  the  story  to  Mrs.  Harri- 
man and  ask  her  help.  The  wife  of  a  college  presi- 
dent, another  wife  of  a  western  pastor,  the  friend 
of  a  mother  who  is  made  unhappy  by  labor  and  toil 
all  explain  why  they  feel  free  to  tell  of  this  unhap- 
piness  to  Mrs.  Harriman.  I  speak  to  you,  an  un- 
known friend,  as  I  would  to  a  poor  well  known 
friend.  Again,  /  read  this  lovely  column  about  you, 
now  I  want  you  to  read  a  column  about  the  poor- 
est woman.  Such  expressions  alternate  with  as  one 
Christian  woman  to  another,  or  as  one  mother  to 
another. 

How  genuine  the  temporary  personal  relation 
is  one  can  read  through  the  apparent  freedom  with 
which  letters  are  written  —  a  freedom  that  is  prob- 
ably shown  also  when  writing  to  rich  men.  Many 
will  write  the  second,  the  third,  the  fourth  time  beg- 
ging that  at  least  some  answer  be  written,  if  it  is 
only  a  few  lines.     One  mother  sent  a  postal  card: 

95 


96  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Please  write  either  "  yes  "  or  "  no  "  just  to  relieve 
my  anxiety. 

A  woman  in  the  state  of  Washington  tells  of  an 
aged  and  very  good  man  who  came  to  her  house  sev- 
eral months  ago  very  sick.  She  kept  him  until  he 
recovered.  She  hopes  Mrs.  Harriman  will  help  him 
file  a  claim  for  a  farm,  and  closes:  I  think  if  we 
all  help  him  a  little  we  can  get  him  a  home. 

A  small  number  have  assumed  that  wealth  makes 
it  impossible  to  understand  what  it  means  to  have 
no  money  to  pay  rent,  no  bread  to  eat  and  no  wood 
to  burn. 

With  few  exceptions  writers  of  personal  letters 
state  that  they  address  Mrs.  Harriman  because  they 
have  read  of  her  in  the  newspapers  or  magazines: 
that  she  is  one  of  the  richest  women  in  the  world; 
that  she  is  studying  letters  of  appeal  and  seeking 
wise  investments  in  charity;  that  she  has  given  a 
park,  or  money  for  a  chair  in  forestry  to  Yale,  for 
treating  tuberculosis  at  Trudeau's,  for  studying 
cancer,  for  providing  the  Academy  of  Medicine's 
committee  on  budgets  and  hospitals  with  a  secre- 
tary ;  that  she  too  is  a  grandmother.  In  many  in- 
stances clippings  from  newspapers  are  enclosed  as 
partial  justification  for  what  might  otherwise  seem 
an  unwarranted  intrusion.  Many  writers  mention 
some  personal  connection  with  Mrs.  Harriman,  with 
her  relatives  or  with  Mr.  Harriman  and  his  relatives ; 
an  amazing  number  of  men  saved  Mr.  Harriman's  life 
at  different  times ;  the  writers  or  the  writers'  rela- 


WHAT  PROMPTED  APPEALS  97 

tives  worked  on  railroads  with  which  Mr.  Harriman 
was  connected  or  in  Mrs.  Harriman's  household, 
made  bags  for  the  girls,  acted  as  porter  at  a  rail- 
road station  frequently  visited  by  the  family,  driven 
automobiles  or  married  an  old  friend  of  Mrs.  Har- 
riman's  father;  had  lived  in  communities  where  Mrs. 
Harriman  had  lived,  or  had  mutual  friends  or  had 
gone  to  school  with  her  or  her  relatives;  met  your 
brother  23  years  ago.  Not  infrequently  the  writers 
had  been  advised  by  friends  to  address  Mrs.  Harri- 
man, had  dreamed  of  her  or  had  felt  an  irresistible 
impulse  because  of  a  family  resemblance  in  looks  or 
name. 

Similar  reasons  are  given  by  those  writing  for 
colleges,  churches,  charitable  agencies,  etc.  They 
understand  that  Mrs.  Harriman  is  looking  for  op- 
portunities to  give.  Their  college  is  situated  on 
one  of  Mr.  Harriman9s  roads,  each  of  which,  of 
course  runs  through  innumerable  towns  where  a  col- 
lege, Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  church,  hospital  or 
lodge  is  in  need  of  funds.  Men  and  women  appeal- 
ing for  churches,  schools  and  charities  frequently 
disavow  any  initiative  or  responsibility:  /  have 
asked  His  help  so  many  times  I  believe  He  has  put 
it  in  my  heart  to  ask  you  and  let  you  be  His 
almoner;  .  .  God  gave  me  the  spirit  to  write 
and  ask  you;  .  .  I  have  asked  God  for  help 
and  he  has  given  me  this  way  out  of  my  trouble; 
.  .  Your  eyes  seemed  to  look  into  mine  and  to 
say  "  /  will  help  you  if  you  will  help  me."     I  was 


98  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

all  alone  so  I  knelt  down  and  prayed  that  God  would 
forgive  me  if  I  was  doing  wrong. 

To  many  writing  is  by  no  means  an  easy  thing: 
I  have  been  thinking  of  doing  this  for  the  last  year 
but  my  heart  has  always  failed  me;  .  .  A 
spirit  revealed  in  me  for  two  weeks  to  kindly  ask 
you  to  donate  me  something.  I  have  five  children, 
the  eldest  seven  years  old;  .  .  We  are  simply 
desperate;  .  .  /  can  understand  turning  on 
the  gas  and  giving  it  all  up;  .  .  Oh,  dear 
me,  we  will  perish  if  help  don't  come  soon.  We  have 
shed  more  tears  and  prayed  more  this  year  than  ever 
before  in  our  lives. 

I  have  been  surprised  at  the  number  who  evi- 
dently wrote  as  a  last  resort, —  as  a  gamble  in  fact 
■ —  This  letter  will  reach  you  on  Saturday.  Will 
you  have  the  kindness  to  send  me  an  answer  by  spe- 
cial delivery,  as  on  Sunday  ordinary  mail  is  not 
circulated.     My  time  is  limited  in  this  hotel. 

Ruses  and  Insincerities 


Does  It  Pay? 


Some  sailors  on  the  bark  John  SiBennet, 
one  of  whom  had  never  seen  a  copy,  re- 
ceived scriptures  from  our  missionary  just 
before  leaving  port.  Within  ten  days  the 
vessel  went  down  at  sea  and  all  on  board 
but  two  perished. 

Does  it  Pay? 


RUSES  AND  INSINCERITIES  99 

The  imposture  of  individual  begging  has  been 
much  advertised.  The  imposture  of  institutional 
begging  has  been  under  advertised. 

A  professor  of  "  ethics  "  in  a  certain  college  firs^ 
based  his  appeal  on  the  ground  that  the  Harriman 
road  runs  through  our  town,  I  asked  him  what 
college  in  the  west  was  not  on  a  road  with  which 
Mr.  Harriman  was  connected.  He  then  said  that 
Mr.  Harriman  had  visited  the  college.  I  asked  if 
he  thought  that  was  such  an  unusual  thing  for  Mr. 
Harriman  to  do  as  to  indicate  special  interest.  It 
then  developed  that  a  public  official,  who  has  since 
died,  told  this  professor's  president  that  if  Mr.  Har- 
riman had  lived  he  would  have  given  money  to  this 
college.  After  the  claim  had  become  thus  attenu- 
ated I  drew  the  admission  that  this  particular  "  pro- 
fessor of  ethics  "  had  never  seen  the  college  in  ques- 
tion, had  consequently  never  taught  a  day  and  had 
been  given  the  title  to  make  it  easier  for  him  to  raise 
money  on  Wall  Street! 

The  special  delivery  or  registered  letter  and  the 
confidential,  personal  and  private  marks  have  al- 
ready been  mentioned.  The  accompanying  photo- 
graphs show  letters  thus  marked  to  convey  the  false 
impression  that  they  are  different  from  hundreds 
or  thousands  of  other  letters  bearing  a  similar  mes- 
sage. This  practice  is  by  no  means  confined  to  in- 
dividuals, but  is  still  recognized  as  reputable  by  or- 
ganized agencies  having  famous  names  on  their  let- 
terheads     (I   remember  having  sent   several  myself 


100  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

before  this  glimpse  into  the  receiving  side  of  "  beg- 
ging letters.") 

It  was  a  pastor,  flaunting  his  bishop's  endorse- 
ment, who  wrote  in  answer  to  a  letter  from  me  noting 
several  ruses  in  his  appeal: 

In  regard  to  the  word  "  Private  "  on  my  last 
letter  to  Mrs.  Harriman,  would  beg  to  state 
that  I  suppose  she  knows  as  well  as  I  do,  it  was 
impossible  for  a  letter  to  reach  him  or  her  to 
whom  it  might  have  been  addressed,  for  the 
very  simple  reason  that  a  large  staff  was  em- 
ployed to  prevent  the  numerous  letters  of  that 
class  from  bothering  the  person  to  whom  they 
were  sent.  * 

There  are  several  other  ruses  commonly  used  by 
appealers : 

1.  Letters  of  congratulation,  condolence  or  con- 
demnation contain  statements  of  fact  indicating  the 
writers'  need  for  assistance. 

2.  The  work  of  several  agencies  is  described  to 
support  an  appeal  for  one  agency  doing  a  very 
small  part  of  the  work. 

S.  A  national  need  is  used  to  urge  money  for  some 
activity  limited  to  a  small  section  of  a  small  city. 
Thus  an  industrial  school  for  negroes  invokes  in- 
terest in  country  life  as  it  touches  the  life  of  10,- 
000,000  citizens  of  this  country  who  wish  to  rise. 
For  one  organization  an  effusive  appeal  read : 

There  is  no  organization  in  America  so  wide 


RUSES  AND  INSINCERITIES  LOI 

spread  for  good  as  Blank.  .  .  .  There  is 
no  organization  in  the  world  so  potent  in  its  in- 
fluence to  bring  about  peace,  harmony  and 
friendly  relations  between  all  nations.  The 
above  statements  are  correct  for  we  have  al- 
ready caught  glimpses  of  the  grander  Amer- 
ica and  the  deeper  knowledge  of  other  nations. 

As  this  organization  has  since  gone  out  of  business 
for  want  of  a  program,  I  quote  part  of  my  reply 
when  questioned  as  to  this  appeal: 

It  has  no  program  and  is  merely  doing  on  a 
small  scale  for  a  handful  of  people  what  Dr. 
Blank  is  doing  for  tens  of  thousands  every 
night.  One  of  these  days  somebody  is  going 
to  give  a  million  dollars  in  answer  to  a  letter 
like  this.  .  .  .  Nothing  miseducates  peo- 
ple of  great  wealth  respecting  their  opportuni- 
ties and  duties  more  than  do  appeals  that  fail 
to  strike  at  the  fundamental  causes  of  distress 
and  incapacity. 

4.  Urgent  need  is  claimed  where  financial  state- 
ments show  either  a  large  current  balance  carried 
over  from  preceding  years  or  an  unrestricted,  avail- 
able income  from  legacies, —  one  notable  instance  of 
one  of  the  most  appealing  appeals  to  save  human 
lives  was  for  a  sum  several  thousand  dollars  l^ss 
than  the  cash  surplus  in  hand. 

5.  Credit  is  claimed  for  work  either  shared  by  or 
entirely  done  by  other  agencies.  It  is  astonishing 
how  many  agencies  are  alone  in  keeping  boys  off 
the  streets,  rescuing  girls  or  giving  fresh  air  par- 
ties.    Like  cosmetics,  this  ruse  seems  to  require  put- 


102  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

ting  on  thicker  and  thicker  in  order  to  give  the  de- 
sired effect.  Many  agencies  make  such  a  glowing 
report  of  what  they  have  accomplished  that  it  seems 
superfluous  to  send  them  any  money,  and  one  turns 
away  with  the  thought  "  I  would  like  to  help  some- 
body that  has  some  work  still  undone." 

6.  Situations  are  staged  and  friends  posed  to 
give  appeals  effective  settings.  Scenario:  (a) 
clever  idea  for  an  appeal;  (b)  business  man  consents 
to  sign  letter,  which  indignantly  refuses  to  contrib- 
ute; (c)  absolutely  convincing  dramatic  answer;  (d) 
postscript  —  He  has  joined  our  ranks  and  sent  his 
check. 

7.  We  have  secured  the  introduction  (not  passage 
or  even  discussion)  of  legislation  is  seriously  ad- 
vanced as  evidence  of  good  accomplished  and  of  of- 
ficial recognition. 

8.  One  of  the  strongest  organizations  in  the  coun- 
try wrote  a  personal  letter  signed  by  a  big  name  to 
Mrs.  E.  Hey.  Harriman  at  the  wrong  address,  with 
reference  to  the  unusual  number  of  beneficiaries 
cared  for  this  year  over  last, —  after  its  annual  re- 
port had  plausibly  explained  a  marked  decrease  in 
the  number  of  patients  "  this  year  under  last." 

9.  Dear  Friend,  Dear  Mrs.  or  My  dear  Mrs.  is 
used  as  the  greeting  where  the  body  of  the  letter 
is  obviously  circular.  A  minister  begins  his  letter 
of  appeal  for  his  church  My  dear  Mrs.  and  encloses 
it  in  an  envelope  marked  Personal,  Please  Forward. 


RUSES  AND  INSINCERITIES  103 

Yet  his  personal  relation  is  such  that  he  does  not 
even  know  in  what  city  the  addressee  lives. 

10.  Another  uplifting  "  Inconstant  George "  be- 
gins My  dear  Mrs.  in  clear  blue  and  proceeds  in  the 
purple  of  mimeograph  copy  —  /  am  addressing  you 
without  the  formality  of  an  introduction,  a  stranger 
to  you,  but  on  account  of  the  broad  human  sym- 
pathy and  the  generous  philanthropy  which  has  al- 
ways characterized  your  life,  etc,  etc.  Is  it  an  ac- 
cident that  this  same  letter  spells  Mr.  Carnegie's 
name  Carbegie  or  that  its  four  pages  of  typewriting 
give  not  a  single  fact  as  to  the  number  of  persons 
for  whom  this  minister  asks  help? 

11.  What  claims  to  be  a  personal  signature  is 
written  by  some  clerk  whose  hand  refuses  to  imper- 
sonate men  and  women  of  distinction.  Sometimes 
the  clerk  boldly  signs  his  initials  under  the  presi- 
dent's purported  signature,  sometimes  he  works  it  in 
artistically  as  a  tail  to  the  last  letter  of  the  presi- 
dent's name,  or  employs  some  office  mark  which  the 
receiver  is  not  expected  to  recognize  but  which  saves 
the  conscience  of  both  president  and  clerk.  One 
of  the  most  extreme  illustrations  of  this  practice 
was  a  letter  which  came  in  1910:  (a)  addressed  Nto 
Mr.  Harriman;  (b)  at  a  residence  which  had  not 
been  used  for  ten  years;  (c)  beginning  My  dear 
Mr.;  (d)  the  body  of  the  letter  in  a  very  different 
type  from  the  name  and  address;  (e)  signed  in  a 
very  crude  hand  by  the  name  of  a  president  of  in- 


104  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

ternational  reputation;   (f)   a  big  crude  initial  for 
the  mailing  clerk  who  signed  the  president's  name. 

12.  Similar  letters  purporting  to  be  from  cnil- 
dren  telling  pitiful  stories  of  their  parents'  diffi- 
culties are  obviously  written  or  dictated  by  older 
persons. 

It  is  reason  enough  against  any  combination  of 
ruses  and  insincerities  for  catching  the  eye  that  they 
are  deceptions  and  ruses.  Even  those  who  justify 
a  successful  deception  will  condemn  a  clumsy  one. 
The  result  test  will  be  final.  It  may  be  that  for  a 
mailing  list  of  20,000  it  is  better  business,  and  de- 
fensible, to  insert  names  and  addresses  rather  than 
to  say  "  This  appeal  is  sent  to  20,000  men  and 
women  who  ought  to  be  interested."  Thus  far  our 
evidence  as  to  results  shows  merely  that  trolling  the 
hook  will  every  once  in  a  while  hook  a  fish ;  we  have 
no  record  of  the  large  number  of  men  whose  impulse 
to  give  has  been  inhibited  by  palpable  deceptions. 

Hundreds  of  letters  have  come  to  Mrs.  Harri- 
man  of  which  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the  writers  threw 
away  their  chance  to  get  $100  or  $1,000  or  $10,000 
by  flaunting  the  arts  of  professional  mendicants. 
Any  person  of  such  standing  and  of  such  potential 
helpfulness  that  it  is  worth  while  going  round 
Robin  Hood's  barn  to  make  him  think  he  is  receiving 
an  individual  letter,  is  altogether  too  individual  to 
be  approached  through  a  circular  manufactured  by 
the  thousands,  and  is  likely  to  be  too  experienced 
to  be  taken  in  by  ruses  and  insincerities.     After  a 


i:\PENSIVE  RUSES  105 

university  wishing  an  endowment  selects  10  or  16 
rich  men  and  women  to  approach  for  $25,000  or 
$50,000  each,  it  is  running  a  risk  of  losing  one  or 
more  contributions  of  $25,000  if  it  tries  to  save 
$1.50  in  stenographic  expense  by  multigraphing  an 
intimate  personal  letter. 

Crank  Letters 

Crank  letters  are  often  cited  to  justify  throwing 
letters  of  appeal  into  the  waste  basket. 

What  else  can  be  done  for  the  man  who  mails 
you  scented  soap,  about  one  package  a  fortnight, 
with  chapters  of  his  life  history?  What  we  actually 
did  was  first  to  wonder  whether  it  was  safe  for  this 
man  to  be  at  large,  and  then  to  take  steps  to  see 
that  his  mental  condition  was  looked  into  by  the 
proper  local  authorities.  The  same  was  done  in 
the  case  of  the  man  who  wrote  innumerable  letters 
regarding  a  project  which  would  yield  him  $680,- 
000,000  for  uplift  purposes,  at  a  time  when  he  was 
borrowing  in  sums  of  one  and  two  dollars  from 
chance  acquaintances  in  return  for  confidential  posts 
in  his  syndicate. 

A  cured  patient  from  a  hospital  for  the  criminal 
insane  who  promises  to  keep  you  and  your  family 
living  forever  in  exchange  for  a  small  gift  is  not 
merely  a  crank, —  he  is  a  menace  whose  letter  ought 
to  go  to  the  police  department,  not  into  the  waste 
basket. 

Ordinarily  men  who  send  their  photographs  are 


106  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

classed  as  cranks,  especially  if  they  put  on  the  back 
of  the  photograph  their  church,  secret  society  con- 
nections and  lines  of  poetry.  But  "  the  world's  all 
queer  but  thee  and  me  "  and  so  called  crank  letters 
contain  much  wisdom.  With  one  of  these  com- 
binations of  photograph,  calling  card,  church  con- 
nection, poetry,  came  the  following  worth-while  sug- 
gestion with  respect  to  training  municipal  officers: 

The  policemen  of  our  cities  are  selected  be- 
cause of  their  size  more  than  their  mental  abil- 
ity. Our  brawn  counts  five  points  to  brains 
one  point.  The  old  saying  that  "  it  takes  a 
crook  to  catch  a  crook  "  has  so  stamped  the  po^ 
lice  departments  of  our  cities  that  the  common 
people  consider  us  a  very  undesirable  class  of 
citizens.  This  attitude  can  only  be  changed 
by  training  and  education.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  policeman9 s  training  course  in  any 
school  or  university  in  the  United  States  today 
where  a  man  can  get  the  necessary  technical 
training  for  efficient  police  service  outside  of  his 
physical  qualifications,  I  have  been  a  teacher 
for  several  years,  and  even  though  I  am  on  po- 
lice duty  every  night,  I  enjoy  teaching  my 
men's  Bible  class  every  Sunday  morning. 

Humorous  human  interest  can  be  extracted  from 
crank  letters  only  on  condition  that  phrases  and 
words  be  twisted  out  of  their  context.  Reporters 
have  begged  me  to  let  them  treat  our  letters  in  that 
way.  They  think  readers  find  something  excruci- 
atingly funny  about  misspelling.  Who  can  help 
roaring  with  vaudeville  glee  at  the  thought  of  find- 


CRANK  LETTERS  107 

ing  in  one  short  letter  40  misspellings  such  as: 
posibal  for  possible;  weat  for  with;  wed  for  with; 
halt  for  health;  aducate  for  educate;  tow  for  two; 
doughs  for  clothes;  few  for  few;  washup  for 
worship;  depts  for  debts?  Yet  the  writer  is  the 
mother  of  six  children  and  gets  sick  headaches  so 
often! 

A  brief  outline  of  my  life  so  that  you  can  under- 
stand my  trouble  more  clearly  suggests  a  crank,  but 
actually  outlines  one  of  our  largest  social  problems, 
i.e.,  what  shall  a  man  in  moderate  circumstances  do 
when  told  that  nothing  will  save  his  wife's  life  but 
to  travel  in  a  high  western  country,  and  what  shall 
that  same  man  do  after  he  has  sacrificed  his  prop- 
erty and  lost  his  wife? 

Writing  peom'es  hopeing  to  earn  money  to  pay 
debts  is  written  by  a  farmer  of  thirty  whose  bad 
luck  with  the  farm  is  due  to  a  succession  of  droughts 
and  whose  debts  are  due  to  sickness  of  mother  and 
father.  It  was  a  farmer's  wife  whose  husband  is 
sick  all  the  time  and  who  is  herself  under  doctor's 
treatment  most  of  the  time  who  wrote  awfell  bad 
surcustances. 

Asking  a  person  of  means  to  take  up  a  collection 
and  be  sure  to  send  me  the  names  with  sums  con- 
tributed so  that  I  can  send  each  donor  my  thanks 
and  pay  them  back  or  see  a  little  of  your  friends 
and  see  if  they  would  donate  a  little  to  help  a  poor 
man  in  business  becomes  less  freakish  when  we  re- 
flect that  these  writers  are  strangers  to  lands  and 


108  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

customs  where   to   him  in  distress  it  shall  not  be 
given  from  his  neighbor's  surplus. 

One  of  the  freakiest  freak  letters,  fairly  reeking 
with  insincerity,  was  from  a  man  who  claimed  to 
have  spent  ten  years  demonstrating  from  first  hand 
contact  that  it  is  worth  while  to  investigate  the 
horrors,  disgraces,  malevolent  and  ignorant  out- 
rages, procedures  intensely  dangerous  to  health 
and  life  itself  —  now  borne  with  equanimity  and  pa- 
tience by  the  generous  and  trustful  public  . 
among  ordinary  cheap  restaurants  where  the  ma- 
jority of  our  Americans  are  now  getting  their 
"  pot  luck.9' 

The  mother  who  began  her  letter  Dear  Sis  in 
Christ  has  a  husband  in  bad  health  unable  to  work 
and  a  boy  whom  she  would  like  to  take  out  of  the 
mines  and  return  to  school. 

Misfortune's  crank  is  often  prosperity's  philoso- 
pher, statesman  or  monument  builder.  Money  has 
won  halos  for  many  a  man  like  these:  the  young 
man  who  has  a  fine  delivery  and  will  make  a  suc- 
cessful lawyer;  the  business  man  who  makes  it  a 
business  to  write  Is  your  soul  saved?  with  forty 
biblical  passages  and  spirit  abbreviated  to  spt.  and 
them  to  em;  the  man  of  many  degrees  who  has  spe- 
cialized in  English  and  am  therefore  specially  fitted 
for  editorial  work;  the  man  with  a  record  of  58 
jail  sentences  in  one  year  plus  a  health  remedy  made 
of  celery  water;  the  woman  who  is  only  the  candle- 
stick of  Heaven's  light  and  wants  to  revive  the  lost 


CRANK  LETTERS  109 

art  of  letter  writing;  the  spiritualist  who  accounts 
for  someone's  leading  Abraham  Lincoln  to  give  her 
a  false  address  by  saying  Throwing  off  mortality 
does  not  change  the  soul. 

So  general  is  the  assumption  that  begging  let- 
ters come  chiefly  from  freaks,  cranks  and  impostors 
that  numerous  letters  —  including  many  from  im- 
postors —  ask  for  thorough  investigation. 


^MpiU 


Methods  of  Approach 

We  covet  your  most  careful  scrutiny  and  in- 
vestigation of  the  details  of  this  undertaking 
(appeal   for   $25,000) 

Your  attention  is  respectfully  called  to  the 
financial  statements  and  endorsements  attached 
to  this  letter 

This  work  makes  no  public  appeals 

I  would  not  be  afraid  to  ask  that  woman  for 
any  moderate  sum 

If  you  would  make  your  name  and  yourself 
the  best  loved  woman  by  American  women  and 
humanity  at  large,  endow  (a  thoroughly  dis- 
credited movement) 

You  don't  need  to  send  this  to  the  bureau  of 
research  for  it  is  only  one  letter  and  you  can 
judge  for  yourself 

I  know  of  the  quantities  of  good  that  you  do, 
and  of  the  many  desirable  appeals  which  are 
made  to  you,  but  I  feel  that  the  situation  which 
we  wish  to  call  to  your  attention  is  absolutely 
unique 

A  tactful  approach  is  considered  of  first  conse- 
quence, whether  appealing  for  one's  self  or  for  char- 
ity, church  or  college.  A  newspaper  man  always 
wrote  pleasantly  and  admiringly  of  Mr.  Harriman. 
A  would-be  settlement  worker  feels  as  if  my  career 
would  have  been  like  Mr.  Harriman 's  had  I  been  a 
man.  Another  was  engaged  to  a  cousin  of  a  noble 
personage  who  had  an  indirect  relation  to  a  certain 

110 


METHODS  OF  APPROACH  111 

man,  who,  in  turn,  enjoyed  acquaintance  with  the 
Harriman  family.  A  magazine  description  of  a 
room  in  Mrs.  Harriman's  house  suggests  a  friend 
who  has  an  article  quite  like  one  in  the  room  de- 
scribed and  needs  assistance.  Mrs.  Harriman  calls 
such  letters  "  grandson  letters  "  after  the  flood  of 
appeals  following  the  announcement  of  a  grand- 
son's birth, —  a  new  bond  of  sympathy. 

A  boys'  club  asked  for  help  on  the  ground  that  it 
had  called  itself  The  E.  H.  Harriman  Club.  We 
found  that  the  settlement  to  which  the  club  claimed 
allegiance  knew  nothing  of  it  except  that  it  had  an 
application  on  file  for  a  room,  which  room  was  not 
yet  available.  I  wrote  the  boys :  "I  am  afraid  it 
is  another  case  of  the  man  who,  if  he  had  some  milk, 
would  eat  some  mush  and  milk  if  he  had  some  mush." 

//  you  could  only  see  or  //  you  only  knew  or  You 
can't  know  how  the  poor  suffer  introduced  a  large 
proportion  of  the  letters.  This  approach  is  effective 
in  direct  proportion  to  the  ignorance  of  the  person 
addressed  with  respect  to  the  subject  matter.  In 
direct  proportion,  however,  to  the  knowledge  pos- 
sessed of  the  subject  matter  by  the  person  receiv- 
ing the  letter  this  method  becomes  an  obstruction 
and  an  affront  to  sympathetic  interest.  For  exam- 
ple, after  Mrs.  Harriman  had  received  over  5,000 
appeals,  including  hundreds  from  the  south,  one  let- 
ter began:  Could  you  but  realize  the  sad  help- 
lessness  and  patient  poverty  among  the  poor  white 
boys  and  girls  of  the  southern  mountains  who  are 


112  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

seeking  for  an  education, —  a  chance  to  live  —  we 
are  sure  you  would  no  longer  hesitate  to  join  with 
the  patriotic  men  and  women  who  have  interested 
themselves  in  these  people  and  who  are  doing  their 
share  in  this  great  educational  work.  What  reader 
of  average  acquaintance  with  recent  literature  could 
be  complimented  by  this  approach? 
Other  recurrent  introductions   are — 

Of  course  you  cannot  realize  my  position; 
.  .  .  /  do  not  ask  nor  do  I  expect  a  fortune; 
.  /  always  wondered  why  some  could 
have  so  much  and  others  scarcely  anything; 
.  .  .  I  do  not  think  it  is  any  sin  where  you 
have  so  much  and  I  so  poor  (from  an  orphan 
girl  asking  for  $5,000);  .  .  .  When  I 
read  how  much  money  you  have  and  think  how 
poor  I  am;  .  .  .  All  that  I  fear  is  that 
you  may  think  I  am  deceiving  you; 
I  cannot  think  that  wealth  robs  one  of  sym- 
pathy for  others;  .  .  .  This  is  the  first 
time  I  have  asked  any  favor  in  my  life;  .  .  . 
To  think  we  are  so  needy  while  there  are  many 
with  millions  and  more  than  they  want;  .  .  . 
Please  try  to  place  yourself  in  my  position; 
.  .  .  A  duty  I  owe  to  myself  and  family  in 
asking  you  for  help  and  aid;  .  .  .  Allow 
me  please,  without  seeming  impertinence,  to  tell 
the  story  of  my  sacrifice  for  the  hospital 

To  suggest  an  opportunity  for  a  memorial  seems 
a  natural  impulse  among  organized  appealers. 

When  an  isolated  mother  in  Oklahoma,  Wyoming 
or    Maine   sits    down    and   spends    several   evenings 


INTIMATE  PERSONAL  APPEALS      113 

writing  a  statement  of  her  distress  and  her  justifi- 
cation for  asking  another  to  help,  intimate  personal 
references  are  seemingly  confessions  rather  than 
manoeuvcrs.  So  human  is  this  tone  that  the  pro- 
fessional begging  letter  writer  exploits  it,  while 
the  neophyte  writes,  /  am  not  trying  to  write  a 
masterpiece  to  gain  your  sympathy.  When  a  col- 
lege president  or  a  pastor  or  a  charitable  agency 
uses  the  same  method  it  suggests  the  cold  blooded 
analysis  of  human  instinct  and  susceptibility  which 
almost  invariably  shocks  and  offends  the  reader, 
but  which  is  now  being  scientifically  coveted  by  ef- 
ficient appealers. 

Fear  of  the  waste  basket,  born  of  the  knowledge 
that  large  numbers  of  people  are  writing  letters  of 
the  same  kind,  prompts  many  to  say,  In  the  name 
of  humanity  do  not  throw  this  letter  into  the  waste 
basket  until  you  have  read  it;  .  .  This  is  not  a 
begging  letter;  .  .  //  you  know  how  it  hurts  me 
to  write.  Large  numbers  begin,  /  am  not  an  im- 
postor or  //  you  will  ask  my  minister  (this  lawyer 
or  that  banker)  you  will  learn  that  I  am  not  writ- 
ing you  lies. 

As  parishioners  turn  to  their  pastors,  so  pastors 
turn  to  bishops,  and  institutions  enclose  or  offer 
credentials  of  character.  Letters  of  introduction . 
or  endorsement  from  a  bishop  or  a  governor,  quo- 
tations from  comments  by  public  men,  personal  notes 
from  women  of  prominence  or  other  donors  are  con- 
sidered effective.     Wherever  conditional  gifts  have 


114  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

been  made  or  contributions  or  conditional  promises 
by  widely  known  men  and  women,  mention  of  such 
fact  is  made  early  in  the  letter  as  formal  notice  that 
the  agency  in  question  has  worth  while  connections. 

Others  go  further  and  try  to  invoke  a  spirit  of 
suspicion  against  the  genus  secretary  by  saying, 
//  this  gets  by  your  secretary,  or  If  your  secretary 
will  let  you  read  this,  or  Rich  people  as  a  rule  do 
their  kindness  by  proxy,  but  it  seems  to  me  I 
would  not  dare  to  take  such  a  risk  and  trust  to  an- 
other to  form  an  opinion  for  me.  This  distrust  of 
secretaries  —  or  perhaps  this  fair  understanding  of 
their  general  efficiency  —  prompts  people  occasion- 
ally to  beg  the  secretary  to  pass  the  letter  on,  or 
more  frequently  to  write  Personal,  Strictly  Private, 
Private  and  Personal,  Urgent  and  Personal,  Strictly 
Confidential. 

Nevertheless  much  depends  upon  the  approach. 
The  insolence  of  Send  me  a  check  or  If  you  are  a 
barbarian  I  will  get  nothing  from  you  at  least  ar- 
rests attention  more  than  Entre  Nous,  I  have  never 
in  my  life  solicited  aid  from  anyone.  Is  Please 
excuse  me  for  writing  to  the  mother  of  American 
finance  naivete  or  affrontery?  The  letter  is  read 
to  see. 

After  noting  several  hundred  methods  of  ap- 
proach one's  conclusion  must  be  that,  for  writer  and 
giver  alike  appealing  must  remain  a  gamble  until 
both  appealed-to  and  appealer  rely  chiefly  upon  the 
facts  rather  than  upon  introductory  tact. 





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Marking  Appeals  "  Personal  "  is  Not  Confined  to 
Indigent  or  Fraudulent  Individuals 


educational  opportunities 


"  REACHING"  GIVERS  115 

Requests    for    Personal    Interviews 

A  part  of  the  study  that  could  easily  have  grown 
to  considerable  proportions  is  the  verbal  interview 
with  college  presidents,  heads  of  organizations, 
financial  secretaries,  etc,  who  have  come  to  me  be- 
cause I  was  known  to  be  reading  these  letters  and 
have  tried  either  to  enlist  my  personal  interest  or 
to  learn  how  to  "  reach  "  Mrs.  Harriman  or  some 
other  person  of  large  means.  Can  anyone  doubt 
that  it  is  an  educational  opportunity  worth  while  to 
try  to  convince  a  college  president  that  the  way  to 
get  audience  for  his  cause  is  to  work  directly 
rather  than  indirectly,  and  to  exploit  facts  rather 
than  engaging  personality?  Few  have  evidently 
ever  computed  the  time  it  would  take  if  their  re- 
quests  for   personal   interview  were   really   granted. 

The  difference  in  the  reputation  of  a  statement 
by  letter  and  a  statement  by  interview  may  be  gath- 
ered from  the  following  reasons  given  for  personal 
explanation : 

/  would  rather  tell  than  write;  .  .  .  / 
have  been  given  interviews  by  ladies  whose 
achievements  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  will 
live  long  after  your  money  has  been  spent; 
I  cannot  express  my  needs  strongly 
enough  here;  .  .  .  //  /  could  only  come 
and  talk  with  you  half  an  hour,  I  am  sure  you 
would  understand;  .  .  .  An  interview  would 
convince  that  the  reform  of  the  age  is  mainly 
training  along  the  line  of  sound  thinking  and 
right  living;     .     .     .     Shall  be  glad  to  come 


116  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

east  (from  California)  to  talk  it  over;  .  .  . 
This  very  brief  letter  simply  invites  an  in- 
terview (  a  social  agency)  ;  .  .  .  Unless  I 
can  strike  the  spark  of  your  interest  first  I  do 
not  care  to  flood  you  with  letters  and  records 
of  scientific  cases,  for  both  your  time  and  my 
own  is  too  valuable;  ...  7  should  con- 
sider it  a  privilege  to  state  my  views;  .  .  . 
It  is  impossible  to  make  an  adequate  presenta- 
tion of  such  a  matter  and  I  beg  the  opportunity 
to  explain  it  in  a  personal  interview; 
I  am  in  New  York  in  the  interest  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Blank.  Will  you  be  so  good  as  to  let 
me  see  you?  I  will  only  take  a  few  moments 
of  your  time;  .  .  .  I  have  asked  the  (col- 
lege) president  to  call  upon  you. 

A  grotesque  distortion  of  this  form  of  appeal 
came  from  an  ex-minister  who  wanted  money  to  help 
his  pastor's  wife.  He  himself  had  already  given  her 
twenty-five  bottles  of  a  preparation  of  his  own 
make,  but  it  unfortunately  had  not  helped.  Her 
legs  had  kept  on  swelling  until  she  was  frightfully 
disfigured,  and  he  was  sure  If  you  will  come  to  see 
her  you  will  want  to  help. 

The  limits  of  the  personal  interview,  its  dangers, 
mistaken  emphasis,  etc.,  are  referred  to  again  on 
page  172.  As  part  of  the  description  of  Mrs,  Har- 
riman's  letters,  however,  I  want  to  recall  that  a 
very  large  number  of  individuals  and  of  agencies 
turned  their  batteries  on  me  when  they  found  that 
we  were  reading  Mrs.  Harriman's  letters  at  our  of- 
fice.    I  was  invited  to  lunch  and  to  dinner  and  re- 


REACHING  GIVERS  INDIRECTLY      117 

ceived  innumerable  little  courtesies  —  the  under- 
ground railroad  appeal  —  intended  as  hostages  to 
fortune  to  play  upon  my  own  supposed  sense  of 
supposed  importance  as  a  means  of  interesting  me 
in  the  good  work  described.  Letters  came:  Will 
you,  if  possible,  dispose  Mrs.  Harriman  kindly 
toward  us  so  that  she  will  see  Mr.  Blank  and  re- 
ceive him  with  an  open  mind  and  charitable  heart? 
Fortunately  I  was  only  a  student,  not  an  almoner  or 
a  Cerberus. 

One  agency  insisted  upon  several  personal  inter- 
views with  me  which  it  followed  with  a  letter  for  the 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  signed  by  14  names 
of  prominence.  When  this  letter  was  communicated 
to  our  trustees  one  of  them  stated  that  he  had  been 
told  by  a  representative  of  the  appealing  agency 
that  it  had  no  idea  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Re- 
search would  act  favorably  upon  its  appeal,  but  it 
thought  perhaps  the  imposing  array  of  names  would 
bring  forth  an  acknowledgment  from  the  Bureau's 
trustees  which  might  prove  to  be  an  asset  with  Mrs. 
Harriman  I 

Shortly  after  I  began  to  read  these  letters  I  was 
invited  to  speak  at  an  important  gathering.  In 
spite  of  the  flattering  invitation  I  replied  that  I  was 
not  qualified  to  speak  on  the  subject  and  could  not 
think  of  making  an  address  on  it,  and  suggested 
several  alternative  speakers.  One  or  two  of  my  sug- 
gestions were  acted  upon  at  once  and  I  was  urged 
again  to  speak  if  only  for  a  few  minutes.     Quite 


118  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

surprised,  I  replied  that  I  knew  just  as  little  about 
the  subject  in  question  as  I  had  known  three  days 
before  when  I  suggested  the  other  speakers.  Nu- 
merous reasons  were  given  why  it  was  desirable  to 
have  me  participate  in  this  meeting,  and  in  my  weak- 
ness I  consented  to  preside.  Naturally  in  introduc- 
ing the  speakers  I  attached  such  importance  as  I 
could  to  their  work  and  connected  it  with  100%  of 
the  same  problem  reflected  through  the  public 
schools.  A  few  days  later  I  lunched  at  Mrs.  Har- 
riman's  and  found  on  my  arrival  that  the  other 
guests  were  a  relative  of  the  lady  who  had  persuaded 
me  to  participate  in  the  above  mentioned  program, 
and  one  or  two  others  who  wished  to  secure  gifts 
for  the  object  described  at  the  meeting.  By  all  the 
laws  of  human  psychology  I  had  succeeded  in  achiev- 
ing a  position  where  there  was  nothing  for  me  to 
do  but  "  to  stand  pat  "  on  the  complimentary  refer- 
ences made  while  presiding  officer,  and  to  help 
"  land  "  the  gifts  in  question.  In  this  particular 
instance  my  efforts  to  avoid  such  responsibility  met 
with  a  rebuke  from  Mrs.  Harriman  who  questioned 
and  questioned  until  I  had  made  a  very  poor  witness 
for  the  plaintiff. 

When  appealers  have  come  to  me  I  have  done  what 
I  believed  the  clearing  method  should  do  and  what 
rich  men  and  women  individually  should  do,  namely, 
I  have  taken  the  aggressive  and  asked  appealers  to 
see  our  point  of  view.  College  presidents  have  been 
urged  to  work  by  direction  instead   of  indirection, 


AS  OTHERS  SEE  INTERVIEWERS     119 

to  make  their  first  appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  to 
make  that  appeal  definite.  All  have  been  shown  the 
pin  map  with  its  thousands  of  pins  and  have  been 
interested  in  the  problem  confronting  the  receiver 
of  these  appeals  for  over  $200,000,000.  In  a  few 
instances  where  personal  appealers  have  come  to  us 
the  same  method  has  been  used.  How  it  has  worked 
may  be  gathered  from  the  following  letter  written 
early  in  1910: 

I  have  just  finished  talking  with  Mrs.  Blank 
who  called  with  the  envelope  addressed  by  you, 
enclosing  her  letter.  I  put  her  in  the  way  of 
getting  what  she  may  really  need,  but  per- 
suaded her  for  the  time  at  least  not  to  take 
advantage  of  outside  relief  "  for  her  boy's 
sake." 

Her  husband  is  a  book  agent  working  for 
Blank  when  he  works.  He  is  evidently  one  of 
these  "  no  'count "  men  folks.  She  admitted 
that  the  more  help  she  got  from  the  outside,  the 
less  apt  he  was  to  hustle  for  a  job.  I  tried  to 
interest  her  in  the  problem  that  confronts  you 
and  said  that  if  Mrs.  Harriman  were  to  try  to 
give  personal  attention  to  letters  it  would  take 
more  hours  than  the  day  contains;  that  she 
would  have  no  time  to  see  people;  that  if  she 
saw  even  a  selected  few  she  would  not  have  any 
time  for  herself;  that  if  she  had  given  what  peo- 
ple thought  she  "  would  never  miss,"  she  would 
already  have  needed  to  ask  help  for  herself; 
that  above  all  else  she  felt  that  whatever  was 
done   ought   to  be  done  thoroughly;   and  that 


120  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

she  would  not  think  of  trying  to  take  the 
place  of  all  the  hospitals,  nurses,  relief  agen- 
cies, etc. 

Mrs.  Blank  is  an  intelligent  woman,  seemed 
to  see  the  point,  and  seemed  glad  to  have 
thought  it  out  step  by  step. 

How  the  Letters  Closed 

For  each  dolla  you  spend  (for  settling  the 
poor  on  garden  lands)  you  get  an  angele  to 
surround  your  soul 

Hoping  to  hear  from  you  soon;  Awaiting 
assurance  of  your  cooperation;  Thanking  you 
in  advance;  Hoping  you  may  feel  interested; 
Your  reply  will  be  an  encouragement;  A 
prompt  response  will  be  to  our  great  advan- 
tage; Will  you  not  help  us  in  this  time  of  our 
great  need;  Anything  you  can  do  will  be  appre- 
ciated; Checks  may  be  made  payable  to;  May 
you  have  a  long  life  of  prosperity  in  spiritual 
things  as  well  as  temporal  things;  Hoping  God 
will  put  it  in  your  heart  to  help  us;  Only  a 
drowning  man  catching  at  a  straw;  With 
prayers  for  your  help;  Thanks  in  advance  for 
pardoning  my  impertinence  in  writing  to  you; 
Forgive  and  reply 

Our  appeal  to  you  is  that  of  the  "  unfor- 
tunate child."  That  is  why  we  write  you  ur- 
gently; We  will  treat  your  action  in  this  mat- 
ter as  confidential  if  you  desire  it  (twelve  women 
of  wealth  asking  for  $5,000)  ;  On  behalf  of  the 
underfed  school  children 

May  I  beg  of  you  a  promise  to  help  us  help 
ourselves  if  we  can  place  our  needs  before  you 
in  a  satisfactory  manner;  I  do  not  know  how 


HOW  LETTERS  CLOSED  121 

to  make  this  appeal  in  Christ's  name  any 
stronger  (for  a  college)  ;  Answers  to  my  letters 
of  appeal  (for  a  college)  are  often  opened  with 
fear  knowing  how  painful  it  is  to  have  annoyed 
generous  people  * 

A  note  (to  an  appealing  president)  will  se- 
cure an  appointment;  Appreciating  your  inter- 
est in  the  past  (by  agencies  that  have  never  re- 
ceived any  gifts)  ;  Asking  for  your  good  offices 

The  traffic  that  would  be  attracted  to  the 
Harriman  lines  would  soon  be  equivalent  to 
whatever  benefactions  you  might  bestow  ($100,- 
000)  ;  With  best  wishes  for  your  health  and 
happiness  (college  president  —  a  distant 
stranger) 

If  you  are  at  all  interested  we  shall  be  glad 
to  work  out  the  details  more  thoroughly  (Mov- 
ing picture  makers  pay  high  prices  for  mere 
scenario) 


<a~* 


How  Definite  Are  the  Appeals? 

One  of  the  most  definite  appeals  was  from  a  busi- 
ness woman  who,  from  her  own  experience,  sent  an 
admirable,  definite  description  of  present  hotels  for 
working  girls  and  a  description  in  detail  of  an  ideal 
working  girls'  hotel  to  net  4%  or  5%  in  support 
of  the  following  proposition:  What  the  business 
girl  is  now  paying  for  inferior  accommodations 
could,  if  pooled  and  under  proper  management,  of- 
fer her  the.  accommodation  she  so  much  zcishes  and 
at  the  same  time  be  a  dividend  paying  enterprise. 

One  of  the  best  appearing  appeals,  very  direct, 
short  and  bristling  with  facts,  wants  to  reach  by 
mail  over  and  over  again  125,000  Italians  in  Chi- 
cago for  $500  a  year! 

Numerous  individuals  wanting  money  for  courses 
of  treatment,  or  operations,  or  obligations,  fail  to 
indicate  the  character  of  trouble.  A  woman  of  ex- 
cellent education  uses  four  pages  to  describe  herself, 
but  neglects  to  mention  what  she  wants  or  why. 
College  presidents,  as  well  as  people  unaccustomed 
to  writing,  have  forgotten  to  sign  their  names.  A 
man  wishing  business  capital  writes  thirteen  type- 
written pages  of  life  history  and  qualifications  and 


INDEFINITE  APPEALS  123 

sends  a  letter  of  recommendation ;  yet  I  could  not 
tell  what  he  wanted.  So  a  professional  man  wish- 
ing help  to  return  to  practice  writes  a  six  page  let- 
ter without  indicating  the  nature  of  his  practice. 
A  contractor,  who  had  lost  his  fortune  through  the 
dishonesty  of  a  partner,  names  the  mayor  of  his  city 
as  reference,  but  gives  no  idea  of  what  or  how  much 
he  wants. 

Hundreds  of  people  want  a  little  help  or  what 
you  can  spare.  In  but  few  instances  have  requests 
for  money  to  secure  an  education  been  definite  ex- 
cept several  which  have  very  much  underestimated 
the  amount  needed,  and  a  few  which  have  greatly 
over  estimated!  This  home  has  fully  justified  the 
need  of  its  establishment  by  the  number  of  girls  who 
seek  its  protection,  which  number  (or  any  other  fact) 
is  not  given.  A  minister  wants  to  establish  a  Bap- 
tist church  anywhere  in  the  country  for  negroes. 
Another  minister  (white)  wants  to  undertake  the 
impossible  and  surprise  folks  with  success. 

In  personal  letters  such  definiteness  as  appears  is 
usually  to  prove  the  person's  need  rather  than  the 
soundness  of  the  appeal  or  the  way  out.  What 
would  you  send  to  a  literate  woman  who  gives  you 
no  clue  except  tide  over  a  period  of  need?  Would 
you  rather  hear  from  the  working  girl  who  tells 
you  exactly  how  much  she  will  pay  for  each  article 
(including  handkerchiefs,  tooth  brush  and  tooth 
powder)  if  you  will  give  her  $50  for  a  wardrobe? 

One    of    the    most    definite    institutional    appeals 


124  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

was  from  a  colored  group,  already  referred  to,  wish- 
ing to  finance  a  project  for  homes  at  4%  to  4J% 
where  now  the  rate  of  interest  is  generally  stated 
at  10%,  but  the  fees  and  perquisites  raise  the  cost 
of  money  to  15%  and  W%.  Various  facts  are 
cited  showing  earning  power  values  of  building  lots, 
population  of  2,000  on  30,000  acres  of  land  worth 
$1,000,000,  of  which  12,000  acres  are  in  cultivation 
and  on  which  there  is  a  return  of  10%  annually  — 
$18  to  $20  profit  per  ton  on  raw  cotton  seed,  etc. 

Several  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  building 
fund  appeals  have  not  even  mentioned  the  .amount 
of  money  required,  to  say  nothing  of  further  de- 
tails. In  striking  contrast  are  the  briefs  sent  out 
by  the  Nashville  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  moving  appeal 


About  Ourselves  Will  You  Help  Us 

To  stimulate  public  interest  in  the 
We  aim  to  be  helpful  •   schools!  r 

We  want  to  serve  you  -To  give  the  citizen  oversight  which 

There  is  no  limitation  as  to  church  or  nationality  official  bodies  need? 

The  library  of  good  books  is  open  to  all  members         Tq  study  our  own  and  other  $choo, 

systems  ? 
To  foster  co-operation  between  pro-' 
We  learn:  '  fessional  and  volunteer  associations 

To  sing-  interested  in  the  schools  ? 

To  cook  To  publish  leaflets  showing  the  edu- 

Tb  play  basket-ball  cational  needs  of  New  York  ? 

To  paint  To  decorate  school  buildings  ? 

To  pierce  brass  To  increase  the  hurriber  0f  visiting 

To  make  baskets  •  Teachers  ? 

To  crochet  and  embroider  ,  ,     ,  „     . 

To  make  fancy  articles  w-»  Y°u  serv<  on  oncof' the  follow,ng 


To  make  undergarments  and  dresses 


Would  you  like  any  other  kind  of  a  class  ? 
6o,  come  and  tell  us  about  it. 


committees : 


Art  League 

School  Lunch 

Compulsory  Education 

School   Visiting 

Kindergarten 

Special  Children 

Nature  Material 

Tombs  School 

Parents*  Meetings 

Visiting  Teachers 

Playground 

Vocational  Training 

1 


"      B 


INDEFINITE  APPEALS  125 

of  the  Oakland  Y.  W.  C.  A.  which  asked  numerous 
questions,  as  in  cut  on  opposite  page. 

A  woman  asks  for  an  interview  and  $16,000  in 
the  interest  of  a  work  for  women  not  charitable,  not 
educational,  not  religious,  in  successful  operation 
in  Boston,  Cleveland,  Chicago  and  Philadelphia  — 
without  a  single  detail  to  indicate  the  kind  of  work. 

One  college  president  whose  latest  appeal  is  a 
model  of  brevity,  definitencss  and  conviction,  wrote 
us  a  letter  thanking  us  for  our  "  suggestive  letter  " 
which  had  commented  upon  an  earlier  appeal  as  fol- 
lows : 

May  I  go  beyond  my  commission  from  Mrs. 
Harriman  to  suggest  some  of  the  difficulties 
which  those  who  appeal  often  place  in  the  way 
of  ready  understanding  on  the  part  of  those  ap- 
pealed to?  Your  letter  to  Mrs.  Harriman  is 
unsigned,  although  it  is  quite  personal.  It 
gives  no  idea  of  the  number  of  students  at  your 
university,  your  expenses,  distribution  of  ex- 
penses, evidence  of  overdraft  upon  your  re- 
sources. Practically  the  only  reason  given  to 
Mrs.  Harriman  for  helping  your  university  is 
one  that  applies  with  almost  equal  force  to  one 
or  several  colleges  in  almost  any  state  in  the 
union. 

Two  universities  sent  about  the  same  kind  of  ex- 
planatory matter, —  one  carefully  printed,  the  other 
carefully  typewritten;  one  advertising  prosperity  in 
a  network  of  colleges,  the  other  advertising  poverty 
in  a  district  without  college  facilities;  one  showing 


126  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

$1,100  of  property  per  student  and  the  other  $175 ; 
one  spending  $120,  the  other  $41  per  student  per 
year;  the  prosperous  one  has  been  definite  in  its  ap- 
peals for  years,  the  needy  one  is  just  beginning. 

One  college  writes:  We  have  been  continuously 
at  work  on  this  endowment.  It  is  sorely  needed. 
This  college  stands  high  in  the  state  and  it  is  only 

educational  1  DOES  BROOKLYN  NEED  File  this 

Series  A,  No.  4/  ^   WELL-EQUIPPED  COLLEGE?  Other,  will  follow 

MORE   HIGH   SCHOOL  STATISTICS: 

Prepared  for  Enier  Local  Total  No  Entering  Enter  Not  Continuing 

Students  in  H.  S.  College  Annually  Colleges  all  Colleges       Training  School       Education 

Brooklyn  Alone       1,400  120  400  300        700  or  S0f0 

Manh.  and  Bronx     2,100  1.0C0  1,700  200        200or9.5% 

Do  not  700  Brooklyn  youths  who  cannot  leave  home  to  enter  College 

constitute  a  real  DEMAND?    If  you  are  interested  in  supplying  this 

demand  for  a  strong,  well-equipped  College  write  to 

Adelphi  College,  Brooklyn,  N.Y. 
Remember  that  over  70%  of 
H.  S.  Grads.  are  young  women. 

hampered  for  want  of  endowment.  Another  college 
sends  fifty-six  searching  questions  with  definite  an- 
swers. 

One  hospital  that  gets  money  writes  not  the  num- 
ber of  beds,  not  the  cost,  not  the  children  reached 
at  one  time  or  in  one  year,  but  There  are  so  many 
gray  little  lives  — ■  the  beds  are  filled  and  there  are 
other  children  cruelly  passing  away  for  want  of  the 
help  we  could  give  if  we  had  the  chance.  A  home 
for  colored  girls  that  finds  it  hard  to  get  money 
wrote,  Ten  beds  —  that  is  all  we  had  to  offer  22 
girls  who  sought  shelter  the  other  night;  820  girls 


DEFINITE  VS.  INDEFINITE  127 

were  assisted  by  the  agent  at  the  New  York  Wharf, 
9^5  girls  at  the  Norfolk  Pier  and  Railroad.  Even 
if  a  strange  colored  girl  has  money  it  is  hard  for 
her  to  get  lodgings.  (When  I  asked  if  White  Rose 
was  a  sufficiently  descriptive  name  for  a  colored 
girl's  home  the  president  replied :  "  Those  who  ob- 
ject to  the  name  don't  give  us  money;  those  who 
give  us  money  don't  object  to  the  name."  ) 

Most  of  the  national  schemes  are  submitted  with- 
out details.  The  majority  of  requests  for  building 
and  equipment  fail  to  give  the  proposed  cost.  A 
university  aiming  to  raise  $1,910,000  does  not  state 
the  amount  already  raised.  Another  was  delaying 
to  ascertain  the  amount  of  one  gift  (which  turned 
out  to  be  $250,000)  until  advised  that  a  definite 
sum  from  Mr.  Blank  would  prove  a  better  money 
getter  than  Mr.  Blank's  promise  of  "  earnest  and 
substantial  cooperation." 

A  certain  college  has  spoiled  the  climax  of  in- 
definiteness  which  I  planned  to  base  upon  its  first 
appeal,  by  sending  a  second  appeal  which  is  very 
definite  in  one  respect,  i.e.,  It  names  a  dozen  of  the 
best  known  givers  in  the  country  who  have  contrib- 
uted from  $5,000  to  $25,000  each, —  not  one  word 
as  to  enrollment,  cost,  vested  funds ;  absolutely  no 
appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  practically  no  appeal 
to  the  emotion  except  You  will  be  a  great  benefac- 
tress if  you  will  help  us  in  this  great  crisis. 

It  is,  of  course,  natural  that  a  man  with  a  plan 
by  which  $10,000,000  will  reduce  the  cost  of  living 


128  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

in  New  York  City  by  $100,000,000  a  year  and  do 
more  to  eliminate  poverty  and  abolish  crime  than 
all  the  philanthropies  since  Adam,  should  withhold 
details  until  he  can  secure  some  assurance  of  co- 
operation. 

Definiteness  is  especially  meritorious  when  accu- 
rate. The  cost  of  endowed  professorships,  hospital 
beds  and  other  services  is  almost  always  understated 
by  from  25%  to  75%.  A  monument  that  will  live 
forever  is  $1,600  less  than  is  needed  to  endow  the 
old  folks'  bed  concerned.  The  cost  of  a  bed  for  the 
fresh  air  season  is  more  than  twice  the  advertised 
$25.  The  accompanying  balance  sheets  or  sum- 
maries often  tell  quite  a  different  story  from  the  ap- 
pealer's summary,  as  a  computation  would  probably 
embarrass  the  good  lady  who  wanted  your  income 
for  2,000  minutes. 

Another  element  of  'definiteness  is  lacking,  i.e., 
comparison  with  other  agencies  doing  similar  work. 
Is  the  time  coming  when  the  investor  in  public  wel- 
fare will  have  available  comparative,  definite  show- 
ings for  competing  agencies  similar  to  stock  and 
bond  quotations?  Will  the  time  never  come  when 
a  self-respecting  agency  will  not  write,  "  Will  you 
be  one  of  fifty  to  give  $25  (i.e.,  total  $1,250)  each 
to  wipe  out  the  remaining  $4,100  of  our  deficit?" 
And  when  men  will  not  join  a  national  organization 
whose  organizers  reply  to  the  first  appeal  to  pro- 
mote the  practice  of  good  citizenship,  study  and  ad- 
vancement of  good  government,  and  necessary  in- 


SOME  DEFINITE  APPEALS  129 

telligent  and  economical  administration  of  public  af- 
fairs, that  they  will  not  decide  what  money  they, 
need,  how  they  will  spend  it,  or  what  they  will  do 
until  they  learn  how  much  money  they  will  get? 

Help  us  build  a  much  needed  parish  house  is  less 
appealing  when  side  by  side  with  a  request  for  an- 
other parish  house  to  cost  $12,000  for  which  the 
following  activities  are  planned:  free  dispensary; 
milk  station;  day  nursery;  kindergarten;  gym- 
nasium; shower  baths;  swimming  pool;  public  laun- 
dry; public  auditorium;  stage;  employment  bureau; 
loan  office;  second  hand  clothing;  library  and  read- 
ing room ;  game  room ;  bowling  alleys ;  moving  pic- 
ture theater;  manual  training;  meeting  room  for 
city  associations  such  as  Charity  Organization,  Hu- 
mane Society,  etc.     After  all  this  specification  the 

pastor  writes:     //  you  think  is  overchurched, 

write  to  the  local  Commercial  Club  and  they  will  tell 
you  that  two  out  of  every  three  inhabitants  of  this 
city  profess  connection  with  no  church  whatever. 
One  appeal  for  seamen  reads:  There  is  many  a 
half  starving  mother  and  wife  and  child  looking  out 
over  the  sea  anxiously  looking  for  news  from  some 
bread  winner  far  away.  Another  from  the  same 
city  gives  a  clear  detailed  picture  of  work  and  cost. 
Which  kind  do  contributors  want? 

Workmanship  of  Appeals 
The  outward  appearance  of  an   appeal  makes   a 
greater  difference  than  its  actual  importance  justi- 
fies.    Scrawly  hand,  blotted  envelope,  crooked  lines, 


130  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

lack  of  margin,  etc,  establish  a  prejudice  before 
the  letter  is  opened.  Conversely,  neat  envelope, 
with  the  stamp  on  straight,  straight  lines,  careful, 
legible  and  "  refined  "  writing  give  the  writer  a  fair 
chance,  if  not  an  actual  advantage,  before  the  letter 
is  opened.  Of  course,  content  may  offset  bias,  but 
readers  of  "  begging  letters  "  are  only  human  and 
are  willing  to  pay  for  a  pleasant  looking  letterhead 
or  a  neat  appeal  just  as  tenement  districts  prefer 
the  music  man  who  comes  around  with  an  up-to-date 
instrument  instead  of  a  wheezy  old  organ. 

To  show  "  good  form  "  without  the  appearance 
of  unduly  spending  money  helps,  because  it  suggests 
social  and  financial  standing  and  that  "  conspicu- 
ous waste,  conspicuous  leisure  and  conspicuous  con- 
sumption "  which  Veblen  has  said  are  considered  in- 
dispensable by  the  "  leisure  class."  That  is  why 
some  appealers  affect  September  eight,  Nineteen 
hundred  and  eleven  to  imply  social  atmosphere,  in- 
stead of  Sept.  8,  1911,  which  might  imply  business. 

As  all  the  world  is  said  to  love  a  lover,  so  all  the 
world  really  loves  prosperity.  Pennies  go  to  the 
hard  luck  story  man,  but  larger  sums  to  the  man 
who  seems  either  prosperous  or  on  the  ro^d  to  pros- 
perity. 

Dem  wird  es  bald 

Noch  dazu  viel  mehr  gegeben 

Most  of  us  would  rather  be  with  a  man  who  is  al- 
ready climbing  than  pick  up  a  man  who  is  stum- 


WORKMANSHIP  IS! 

Ming.  Then,  too,  wc  like  to  be  in  what  is  called 
"  the  band  wagon."  The  dividing  line  between  taste 
and  extravagance  differs  with  the  appealer  and  the 
recipient.  Engraved  letterheads  are  apt  to  drive 
away  rich  men  who  began  their  fortunes  by  small 
economies.  A  very  neat  type  imitation  of  engrav- 
ing, however,  may  produce  a  pleasant  impression 
while  still  advertising  economy, —  a  very  dangerous 
step,  however,  jn  dealing  with  those  who  have  never 
known  or  are  trying  to  forget  the  small  economies, 
or  who  abhor  imitations. 

Writers  of  personal  letters  usually  take  a  great 
deal  of  pains.  Often  they  make  the  pains  too  ob- 
vious. But  if  strangers  are  to  write  personal  ap- 
peals they  surely  create  a  better  impression  if  their 
writing  in  itself  shows  respect.  Lack  of  respect  is 
shown  when  a  minister  steps  into  a  hotel  and  writes 
a  letter  either  for  himself  or  for  his  church  on  hotel 
stationery.  Lack  of  respect  is  shown,  too,  if  the 
addressee's  name  is  misspelled  or  blotted,  or  when 
the  head  of  a  school  writes  in  lead  pencil  in  behalf 
of  a  promising  student. 

A  letter  from  a  beneficent  institution,  world  wide 
in  its  scope  and  policy  for  humanity,  has  several 
misspelled  words,  several  letters  struck  over  other 
letters  or  corrected  in  ink,  besides  other  warnings 
to  the  reader  not  to  risk  money  on  that  institution's 
present  methods.  Who  could  help  doubting  the 
competency  of  a  large  dispensary  which  addresses 
three  members  of  the  same  family  at  three  different 


132  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

places,  only  one  of  which  is  correct  at  any  season? 
Some  of  the  worst  appearing  letters  have  come 
from  institutions.  In  one  or  two  instances  it  has 
seemed  the  kind  thing  to  call  attention  to  misspelled 
words,  improperly  spaced  lettering  and  other  evi- 
dences of  carelessness  incompatible  with  the  purpose 
of  the  letter. 

When  ordinary  circular  appeals  are  obviously  ad- 
dressed by  a  clerk,  efficiency  is  suggested.  No  one 
expects  the  president  of  a  college  to  sign  several 
thousand  facsimile  letters.  But  when  a  pretended 
personal  letter  is  sent  out  for  a  college  or  a  hos- 
pital containing  reasons  why  the  person  addressed 
should  help,  or  an  invitation  to  come  and  see  the 
work,  and  is  signed  by  the  name  of  the  president  or 
secretary,  such  a  letter  makes  a  vastly  better  im- 
pression if  there  is  something  on  its  face  to  indicate 
that  it  has  at  sometime  or  other  received  the  per- 
sonal attention  of  the  man  or  woman  whose  name  is 
signed  to  it.  To  the  treasurer  of  one  organization 
I  wrote: 

Sometimes  we  go  beyond  our  commission  and 
venture  a  suggestion  that  might  prove  of  some 
help.  I  am  risking  such  a  suggestion  with  you 
because  I  think  you  remember  my  interest  in 
your  work.  I  refer  to  the  circular  letter  signed 
by  Blank  in  which  the  name  and  address  of  Mrs. 
Harriman  and  the  date  have  been  inserted.  I 
never  looked  at  this  in  the  same  way  until  read- 
ing these  many  letters  for  Mrs.  Harriman ;  I  do 
not  even  know  if  they  impress  Mrs.  Harriman 


VALUE  OF  WORKMANSHIP  133 

as  they  do  me.  But  I  can  easily  imagine  that  a 
person  who  is  in  a  class  to  give  $1,000  to  Blank 
might  question  your  making  a  letter  appear 
personal  when  on  its  face  it  is  a  circular.  Inci- 
dentally, may  I  recall  that  you  have  the  wrong 
address  which,  in  a  way,  emphasizes  the  point  I 
have  ventured  to  make  above. 

We  were  not  only  thanked,  but  were  told  that  the 
appeal  in  question  had  been  opposed  by  a  strong 
minority  in  the  appealing  board. 

There  are  many  devices  for  making  an  inserted 
name  look  exactly  like  the  body  of  the  letter.  There 
is  even  a  blurred  type  which  suggests  that  the  let- 
ter has  been  typewritten  and  copied  from  the  old 
style  letter-press  on  wet,  thin  paper.  Several  thou- 
sand of  these  are  sent  out  and  a  typewriter  ribbon 
made  to  blur  the  same  way.  These  devices  are  em- 
ployed more  and  more  by  charitable  institutions 
and  by  business  men,  because  it  is  assumed  that  men 
and  women  are  more  apt  to  read  something  that 
looks  as  if  it  were  written  especially  for  them,  even 
if  it  is  an  advertisement,  than  to  read  the  same  mat- 
ter if  it  shows  on  its  face  that  it  is  impersonal  and 
intended  for  a  large  number  of  people. 

The  wholesale  appeal  on  mimeograph  copies  with 
personal  greetings  by  grace  of  separate  inserts  of 
name  and  address  was  recently  justified  by  one  rich 
agency, —  Like  the  largest  and  best  organizations 
we  have  been  compelled  to  adopt  the  mechanical  fol- 
low-up method  of  appealing  in  order  to  get  this 
work  and  its  needs  before  the  public. 


134  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Before  me  is  an  unusually  attractive  looking  ap- 
peal: (a)  the  interest  of  100  persons  is  to  be  en- 
listed—  many  donors  like  to  think  of  themselves  as 
being  in  a  selected  group;  (b)  the  stationery  looks 
like  a  social  note  rather  than  a  business  letter ;  (c) 
the  heading  is  imitation  engraving,  suggesting 
again  purely  personal  matters ;  (d)  the  points  stand 
out  clearly,  the  letter  is  brief  and  would  appeal  to 
judgment  irrespective  of  the  effort  made  to  appeal 
to  class  and  the  aesthetic  taste;  (e)  the  letter  shows 
on  its  face  that  it  is  a  circular  letter  with  the  name 
and  greeting  inserted;  (f)  the  names  of  the  president 
and  secretary  are  obviously  signed  in  a  clerk's  hand 
and  obviously  by  the  same  clerk;  (g)  the  receiver's 
name  is  given  improperly;  (h)  a  recent  innovation, 
thought  by  some  to  be  hyper-select,  begins  Dear 
Madame;  (i)  the  letter  gives  no  idea  whatever  of  the 
cost  of  the  work  mentioned  beyond  the  two  expres- 
sions small  subsidy  and  we  spend  several  times  as 
much  as  the  state  gives. 

Details  of  Technique  Observed 

Envelopes :  Cheap,  costly;  white,  blue,  pink,  brown, 
green,  yellow,  orange ;  small  square,  large  square ; 
six-inch,  nine-inch,  4 J  x  3  to  9x11 

Stamps :  Straight,  crooked,  upside  down ;  single 
special  delivery,  five  two-cent  stamps  marked  spe- 
cial, registered 

Address:  Written,  typewritten,  stenciled,  addresso- 
graphed;  neat,  slovenly;  plain,  illegible;  straight, 


TECHNICAL  DETAILS  135 


-/stto 

crooked ;  street  spelled  out,  in  figures ;  wrong  and 
right  street  numbers;  often  city  only,  several 
United  States  only 

Exhibits:  Enclosed,  under  separate  cover;  incor- 
porated in  appeal  or  on  back  of  subscription 
slips;  tables,  clippings,  reports,  photographs,  let- 
ters,  references 

Return  Envelopes:  With  and  without  subscription 
slips  or  subscription  books  serially  numbered  in- 
dicating that  trouble  or  inconvenience  may  result 
from  failure  to  return  it;  designed  for  enclosures, 
too  large  or  folded ;  especially  made  and  marked 
for  accompanying  appeal,  regular  stock ;  ad- 
dressed to  individual  or  agency,  treasurer,  presi- 
dent, unaddressed;  stamped  (may  I  confess  an  im- 
pulse to  take  the  stamps  off  even  stamped  enve- 
lopes rather  than  be  forced  to  pay  attention  to 
an  appeal  which  the  senders  think  I  would  not 
heed  without  the  return  stamp?),  unstamped;  sev- 
eral agencies  employ  pocket  return  card  for  safety 
of  coins 

Stationery :  Often  different  from  envelope;  all  col- 
ors ;  perfumed ;  engraved,  imitation  engraving, 
plain ;  with  and  without  lines ;  all  sizes ;  one  sheet, 
four  pages,  written  first  and  fourth  page,  first 
and  third 

General    Appearance:     Leisure    class,    businesslike, 


136  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

personal;  aesthetic;  appealing;  hurried,  careless, 
slovenly 

Margin:  Narrow  or  lacking,  medium,  broad;  lines 
regular,  irregular  (One  of  the  best  money  rais- 
ers in  the  country  sent  a  letter  without  margins, 
single  space,  several  misspellings,  blottings,  ink 
corrections) 

Salutation:  Same  color  as  letter,  different  color; 
often  misspelled  or  wrong  initials ;  Hey  for  H , 
etc;  Dear  Sir,  My  esteemed  Sir,  Madame,  Dear 
Madame,  Dear  Mme.,  Dear  Friend,  Dear  Mrs., 
My  dear  Mrs.,  Generous  Lady,  Noble  American 
Soul;  affected  personal,  obviously  circular,  name 
inserted,  no  name;  printed  letter  and  typewritten 
name,  ink  name 

Spacing:  Single,  double,  treble,  quadruple;  all  four 
combined 

Letterheads:  Agency's  name  only;  name,  street 
number,  city;  generally  names  of  officers,  some- 
times half  the  letterhead  taken  with  officers'  names, 
purposes,  .committees,  cooperating  agencies,  ref- 
erences,   cheerful    thoughts,    biblical    quotations, 

"The  Place  Where  God  flukes  Qrooked  Men  Straight.'* 

significant  facts,  exhortations  (There  is  many  an 
agency  that  is  suffering  from  the  wealth  repre- 
sented on  its  stationery.  One  of  the  hardest  be- 
liefs for  us  to  outgrow  is  that  hoped-for-donors 
are  going  to  be  hoodwinked  and  awed  by  an  array 
of  names  obtained  on  the  assurance  that  nothing 
will  be  expected  of  them  but  to  lend  the  weight  of 


AS  APPEALS  ARE  WRIT  137 

their  names  to  the  stationery.  The  value  of  big 
names  is  not  so  great  with  the  same  giver  in  his 
tenth  year  ag  in  his  second  year  of  giving,  and 
not  so  great  with  people  big  enough  to  be  on  let- 
terheads themselves  and  to  know  how  little  it 
amounts  to.  Whether  names  help  or  not  depends 
upon  whether  the  big  names'  cooperation  is  con- 
fined to  the  letterhead.  A  repeater  on  letterheads 
soon  comes  to  have  as  little  standing  as  a  repeater 
in  any  other  class) 

Paragraphing:  None,  topical,  geographical  (The 
use  of  the  short  paragraph  is  now  being  cultivated 
You,  as  a  manufacturer,  can  help  in  two  ways: 
— you  can  contribute  facts,  and  you  can  con- 
tribute funds) 

Typography:  Ten  point,  eight  point,  six  point; 
pen,  typewritten,  stenciled,  type  mimeographed, 
imitation  copy  press,  printed;  Devinne,  Roman, 
Gothic,  italics;  heavy  black  face,  underscoring, 
indenting;  subject  heads  lettered  and  numbered; 
red  for  emphasis,  words  and  phrases  in  caps,  un- 
derscoring or  for  answers;  made  by  the  hundreds 
or  thousands  obviously,  or  "  by  stealth  "  and  imi- 
tation 

Signature:  Original,  proxy,  printed,  facsimile, 
with  and  without  initial  of  amanuensis,  stamped, 
typewritten  (e.g.,  a  woman  who  begged  an  in- 
terview to  present  references  and  an  important 
uplift  program)  ;  sometimes  endorsed  O.K.,  John 
Smith,  or  /  heartily  endorse  this  appeal,  Frances 
Jones;  sometimes  committees  of  business  men  and 


138  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

contributors  will  sign  an  appeal  from  an  agency 
with  which  they  have  no  official  connection ;  some- 
times several  officers  sign  in  original  or  facsimile; 
often  the  supporting  endorsement  comes  in ,  sepa- 
rate letter 

Length:  One  third  page  to  19  pages;  the  pre- 
vailing preference  is  for  one  page,  double  space 
(See  One  Page  Fetich,  page  330) 

Tone:  Dignified,  mendicant,  conservative,  exag- 
gerated, sensational,  courteous,  businesslike,  sin- 
cere, insincere,  "  posed,"  apologetic,  confident ; 
too  often  superlative  like  the  German  cooking  of 
which  a  friend  of  mine  once  said,  after  we  had 
had  sorrel  soup  and  a  very  peppery  meat  dish, 
"  German  cooking  is  like  German  music, —  every 
fellow  blows  as  hard  as  he  can  all  the  time " ; 
consistent  or  inconsistent  with  previous  appeals, 
as  of  the  case  already  mentioned  where  a  society 
(a)  claimed  that  during  its  season  it  was  being 
over-run  with  applicants ;  (b)  explained  six 
months  later  a  decrease  in  the  total  number  helped 
by  claiming  an  unusually  comfortable  season 
for  the  poor;  (c)  strengthened  its  appeal  again 
at  the  height  of  the  next  season  by  bemg  over- 
run this  year  as  last. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  appealing  agencies 
think  they  are  handicapped  by  a  general  public 
which  will  not  understand  frank  dealing.  If  they 
set  out  in  bold  figures  that  there  are  fewer  calls 
upon   them   this  year  than   last  they  are  afraid 


THE  WHY  OF  SUPERLATIVES        139 

that  givers  will  lose  interest;  therefore  they  re- 
sort to  extremes  of  language  to  fix  the  attention 
on  the  need  for  continuing  their  work  rather 
than  upon  this  year's  relative  need.  For  similar 
reasons  societies  feel  that  it  is  not  practical  to 
modulate  their  appealing  and  that  they  must  cry 
"  Wolf  "  all  the  time  even  when  they  have  money* 
in  the  treasury.  There  was  a  time  when  a  mendi- 
cant could  rely  upon  a  plain  tale  of  distress,  but 
as  competition  grew  there  was  a  gradual  premium 
upon  extreme  degrees  of  distress. 

Therefore  we  have  a  differentiation  of  function 
following  certain  laws  of  survival.  A  man  covers 
up  an  alleged  wound  that  he  kindly  offers  to  show 
to  the  passerby,  while  the  woman  runs  the  gamut 
from  tears  and  rags  to  stories  about  sick  babies, 
thence  to  the  actual  showing  of  a  sick  baby  even 
if  she  has  to  borrow  one.  Bolder  spirits  make 
their  eyes  look  blind  or  actually  blind  themselves 
or  their  children,  while  capitalized  mendicants  — 
the  first  organizers  and  systematizers  of  charity 
—  pick  out  likely  and  impecunious  persons  with 
one  eye  or  one  leg  and  pay  them  by  the  day  or 
the  season  for  "  pan  handling,"  throwing  fits  or 
otherwise  exciting  pity  or  pennies 
Wording:  Features  are  too  numerous  to  be  taken 
up  except  by  correspondence  schools  for  givers  or 
by  a  clearing  house  that  proposes  to  give  to  all 
appealers  suggestions  and  models  corresponding 
to  hints   for  advertisers   found  in  Printers   Ink, 


140  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

or   intimate   talks    to   people  in   trouble,   such   as 
penny  papers  and  woman's  magazines  find  it  prof- 
itable to  conduct.     I  have  heard  a  long  discussion 
of  the  probable  effect  on  a  rich  man  of  the  two 
expressions  "  Will  you  give  "  or  "  Will  you  not 
give " ;   "  May   we   ask  "    or   "  May   we   not   ask 
you."     Of  course,   if  the   giver   is   once   credited 
with  wanting  to   accomplish  something  with  his 
money  it  is  of  relative  unimportance  whether  ap- 
pealers say  "  Will  you  "  or  "  Won't  you."     Un- 
til givers  take  the  aggressive,  however,  it  will  re- 
main worth  while  for  appealers  to  consider  such 
details,  remembering  always  that  people  are  soon 
educated  beyond  the  "  Will  you  not  "  stage  and 
that  very  few  givers  will  continue  to  act  with  hair 
spring  responsiveness  to  subtle  suggestions 
Methods  of  Raising  Money:     Personal  letters,  in- 
terviews,   circular    letters,    special    case    appeals, 
fairs,  dances,  euchres,  lotteries,  money  bags,  tag 
day,    rolling   a    large   ball    through    the    streets, 
regular,    seasonal,    emergency       (Many    societies 
are  quite  as  regular  in  their  emergency  appealing 
as   in   their   seasonal   appealing.     An   emergency 
appeal  is  permitted  somewhat  more  lurid  language 
and  is  timed  to  reach  the  prospective  giver  when 
the  newspapers  are  giving  huge  lines  to  "  heat 
prostrations "   or  the  "  first   snow   storm."     The 
timeliness   makes    a   difference   of   from   10%    to 
100%    in   the   returns   from   an   appeal.     Hence, 
efficient    agencies    are   forehanded   and,   to   avoid 


THE  SPECIAL  APPEAL  141 

being  caught  napping,  frequently  omit  the  date) 
Special  Appeals:  Wherever  charity  organization 
work  is  known  newspaper  readers  are  told  of  veri- 
fied individual  cases  of  distress  in  much  the  same 
words  as  are  quoted  here  from  individual  appeals. 
One  variation  is  a  similar  appeal  through  the 
mail  to  a  selected  mailing  list.  Other  competing 
agencies  are,  as  a  rule,  refused  free  advertising 
in  the  newspapers,  but  learning  or  assuming  that 
large  sums  are  raised  by  this  free  advertising  they 
try,  instead,  a  special  case  appeal  to  a  mailing 
list.  As  such  appeals  are  apt  to  raise  more  money 
than  the  particular  case  requires,  efficient  agen- 
cies try  to  word  them  sometimes  covertly  and 
sometimes  frankly,  so  that  any  surplus  may  be 
applied  to  the  society's  general  work  or  to  other 
similar  cases.  Likewise,  because  emotional  ap- 
peals for  summer  fresh  air  work,  for  example, 
appeal  more  to  the  imagination  and  raise  more 
money,  efficient  agencies  are  beginning  to  slip  in 
a  photograph  or  a  reference  that  will  justify 
transferring  any  surplus  from  the  cause  which 
brought  it  in  to  other  less  gift  impelling  services. 
By  focusing  attention  upon  one  child  or  one  nar- 
row kind  of  suffering  this  special  appeal  tends 
to  be  reactionary  and  to  miseducate  a  public  pre- 
pared to  interest  itself  in  800,000  children.  See- 
ing this,  efficient  agencies  try  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  the  case  cited  is  typical,  not  isolated 
Following  up  Appeals:     There  is  no  cause  so  poor 


142  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

that  it  cannot  raise  money  if  it  can  afford  to 
spend  money  on  circularizing  a  mailing  list.  One 
New  York  director,  John  Seely  Ward,  is  the 
Grand  Old  Methodizer  of  appealing.  He  per- 
suades rickety  or  discouraged  agencies  to  spend 
money  they  have  not  got,  on  the  "  dead  cer- 
tainty "  that  a  mailing  list  will  pay  for  circular- 
izing and  ultimately  pay  big  dividends.  He  cites 
the  experience  of  first  one,  then  two,  then  10  or- 
ganizations which  tried  it,  and  obtains  the  cooper- 
ation of  other  boards  of  which  he  is  a  member  in 
exhibiting  their  lists  and  in  training  new  list 
makers. 

To  send  out  2,000  appeals  costs,  including, 
postage,  addressing,  folding,  etc,  say  $60.  The 
average  life  of  a  contribution  is  five  years.  If 
2,000  appeals  bring  in  $12  they  pay  their  way. 
If  they  bring  in  $100  they  show  a  big  profit  which 
increases  progressively. 

A  man  once  complained  to  me  that  money  was 
wasted  on  sending  him  so  many  appeals.  I 
counted  up  the  exact  cost  of  letter  and  stamps, 
plus  circularizing  him  for  several  years.  It  to- 
taled twenty-three  cents.  As  I  wrote  him,  he  had 
sent  us  $25,  and  if,  as  we  hoped,  he  would  con- 
tinue his  gift  and  interest  one  or  two  others  we 
would  seem  to  have  made  a  pretty  good  invest- 
ment. 

One  agency,  quoted  elsewhere,  frankly  justified 
what  it  called  this  mechanical  follow-up  method  on 


VALUE  OF  REITERATION  143 

the  ground  that  it  was  necessary  and  was  used 
by  all  large  and  efficient  agencies 
Cost  of  Systematic  Appealing:  Only  a  small  frac- 
tion of  the  cost  is  published  or  recorded.  No  ap- 
peals have  stated  what  part  of  a  gift  would  be 
used  to  pay  for  appealing.  Few  agencies  keep  a 
careful  record  of  the  postage,  stationery  and 
printing  of  appeals.  Fewer  still  add  the  greater 
cost  of  time  spent  by  executive  officers,  clerks  and 
stenographers  in  the  preparation  of  appeals  and 
in  taking  care  of  the  answers  and  follow-up. 

A  third  division  of  appeal  cost,  which  may 
properly  be  called  social  cost,  I  have  never  known 
to  be  computed  or  even  emphasized  (except  by 
Mr.  Rockefeller,  see  page  214)  and  that  is  the  time 
and  energy  which  are  diverted  from  the  actual 
work  of  these  agencies  to  discussing  methods  of 
raising  the  money  necessary  to  do  the  work.  This 
is  vastly  greater  than  most  people  imagine,  be- 
cause even  agencies  that  do  not  live  from  hand 
to  mouth  live  from  feeding  to  feeding  and  give 
the  cream  of  their  thought  always  to  the  next  ap- 
peal or  to  the  less  regular  but  none  the  less  in- 
sistent claims  of  potential  large  givers  and  leg- 
acy makers. 

It  is  fair  to  speak  of  this  social  cost, —  in  fact 
it  is  not  fair  to  neglect  or  to  underestimate  it  — 
because  problems  of  government  and  philanthropy 
are  presenting  alternatives  constantly  to  com- 
munities  and  to  individual  givers   of  money  and 


144 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


energy.  To  spend  leadership  uneconomically  or 
to  think  inefficiently  about  these  problems  may 
easily  represent  a  greater  social  loss  than  to  give 
away  a  fortune  unwisely. 


SIX    LETTERS 

1.  THE  CRY  OF  A  CHILD 

2.  FROM  PRISON  CELL 

3.  A  MESSAGE  OF  HOPE 

4.  FROM  OUT  OF  THE  DEPTHS 

5.  A  PLACE  AT  LAST 

6.  MAKING  GOOD 


These  are  genuine  'human  docu- 
ments.' 

Read  the  first  letter. 
Then  you  will  read  the  others. 


PART  II 


Princely  Giving 

In  1911  public  gifts  of  $270,000,000  were  an- 
nounced in  American  newspapers.  The  yearly  av- 
erage of  gifts  heralded  broadcast  the  preceding 
twelve  years  was  over  $100,000,000.  To  this  total 
of  special  gifts  in  large  sums  by  a  handful  of 
princely  givers  should  be  added  not  less  than  a  hun- 
dred millions  yearly  in  small  amounts  —  apart  from 
taxes  remitted  on  private  philanthropies  —  given 
as  intended  benefactions  in  country  and  city. 

This  truly  princely  giving  is  bound  to  increase. 
Within  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years  from  two  to 
four  billion  dollars  will  be  given  in  large  sums  to  or- 
ganized private  charitable,  religious,  social  and  edu- 
cational agencies. 

Any  expenditure  on  so  huge  a  scale  needs  to  be 
justified.  $270,000,000  means  a  year's  earnings  of 
270,000  families,  which  means  270,000  families  de- 
flected from  industries  for  one  whole  year  or  the 
permanent  deflection  from  industry  of  12,600  fami- 
lies. The  presumption  is  against,  not  for,  such  de- 
flection. Whether  this  princely  giving  is  a  national 
resource  or  a  national  drain,  asset  or  liability,  is  of 
momentous  concern  to  100,000,000  people  and  their 
successors. 

Unless  this  investment  can  be  proved  to  be  pro- 
ductive, it  represents  almost  as  great  a  burden  as 

147 


148  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

war.  Male-l actions  cannot  be  justified  because  they 
spring  from  bene-xolence. 

To  learn  whether  we  as  a  nation  may  be  either 
the  beneficiary  or  maleficiary  of  this  princely  pri- 
vate interest  we  must  ask  what  happens  as  the  re- 
sult of  such  interest.  If  told  not  to  look  a  gift 
horse  in  the  mouth,  we  owe  it  to  our  intelligence 
to  reply  that  the  gift  horse's  mouth  may  carry 
glanders  or  cholera. 

In  spite  of  the  certainty  felt  throughout  the  coun- 
try that  large  giving  has  hardly  begun,  there  is 
developing  neither  the  art  and  science  of  giving  nor 
the  art  and  science  of  thinking  about  giving  by 
others. 

Even  from  the  standpoint  of  abstract  economics 
we  can  afford  no  longer  (to  delay  discovering  the 
laws  of  a  business  which  every  year  turns  $100,000,- 
000  in  large  sums  away  from  certain  forms  of  pro- 
ductive investment  to  other  forms  of  investment 
whose  productivity  no  one  knows. 

Of  no  other  comparable  investment  or  resource  is 
there  so  little  effort  to  discover  the  laws  of  effective- 
ness. The  large  amounts  given  every  year  exceed 
more  than  twice  the  trade  of  the  United  States  with 
China,  more  than  the  annual  imports  from  Canada 
and  almost  equal  our  sales  to  France.  They 
are  more  than  the  maximum  annual  exports 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  whose  operations 
kept  the  world  agog  for  25  years,  and  efforts 
to    control    which    set    new    standards    for    private 


DOES  GIVING  UPSET  149 

business    and    public    restriction    of    such    business. 

The  evil  consequence  to  individuals  or  to  the  na- 
tion of  a  wrong  policy  in  Alaska  or  in  the  Philip- 
pines is  infinitesimal  compared  with  the  evil  results 
that  are  certain  to  follow  the  giving  within  a  gener- 
ation of  two  or  four  billion  dollars  in  ways  that 
either  obstruct,  or  fail  to  further,  industrial  and 
social  readjustment  and  progress. 

When  a  rich  man  dies  and  leaves  a  capital  of  $10,- 
000,000  or  $50,000,000  it  becomes  at  once  the  busi- 
ness of  directors  of  vested  interests  to  secure,  if 
possible,  the  control  of  this  fortune  so  as  to  further 
their  own  investments  or  at  least  to  guarantee  its 
handling  in  ways  that  shall  not  seriously  interfere 
with  "industry,"  the  "market,"  or  the  "street." 
Trustees  and  executors  find  themselves  popular  with 
capital's  representatives.  They  are  nominated  for 
boards  of  directors,  and  —  what  is  particularly  to 
the  point  —  the  location  and  direction  of  their  in- 
vestments is  a  matter  of  constant  reckoning  and  ad- 
justment on  the  part  of  neighboring  big  business. 

American  princely  giving  as  a  social  asset,  or  as 
a  potential  upsetter  of  social  forces,  is  many  times 
more  important  than  any  single  fortune  that  has 
yet  been  left  behind.  There  are  five  parties  in  in- 
terest: (1)  the  donor;  (2)  persons  in  the  donor 
class  that  are  not  yet  donors;  (3)  the  institutional 
recipient;  (4)  beneficiaries  of  the  recipient  institu- 
tion ;  (5)  society  whose  energies  are  diverted  and  de- 
flected, stimulated  or  enervated  by  princely  giving. 


150  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Of  these  parties  in  interest  no  one  has  ceased  to  rely 
chiefly  —  or  rather  to  gamble  —  upon  the  accidents 
of  personal  interest  for  determining  the  direction 
of  big  giving.  The  potential  donor  has  been  al- 
most entirely  neglected.  The  beneficiary  has  been 
but  superficially  considered,  while  the  effects  of  giv- 
ing upon  society  or  upon  societies  have  not  been 
critically  studied. 

Neglect  to  work  out  and  to  discuss  the  laws  which 
should  govern  private  beneficence  on  a  large  scale 
is  not  only  causing  society  unjustifiable  delays  and 
handicaps,  but  is  conceivably  poor  business  from  the 
standpoint  of  private  agencies  wishing  to  secure 
the  lion's  share  of  gifts.  Vast  as  are  the  sums 
given  for  public  benefactions,  they  are  but  a  baga- 
telle compared  with  what  people  of  means  are  will- 
ing to  give  either  as  private  donors  or  as  taxpayers 
if  only  the  facts  regarding  their  opportunity  are 
freely  presented. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  Part  II  not  to  criticise  giv- 
ing as  it  has  been,  nor  to  deprecate  either  its  little- 
ness or  bigness,  but  to  suggest  standards  of  think- 
ing and  testing  that  will  accomplish  vastly  more  for 
each  of  the  five  parties  to  giving  which  must  always 
result  in  either  malefactions  or  benefactions. 


YOU  CAN  HELP- WILL  YOU? 

See  Item  9,  Page  3 


One  Consequence  of  Princely  Giving:  Begging 
Letters 

Advertising  pays. 

The  soul  of  advertising  is  reiteration. 

People  write  to  the  rich  for  the  same  reason  that 
they  buy  sapolio  or  the  "  57  varieties,"  "  best  sell- 
ers," articles  of  apparel  and  musical  instruments 
which  make  literature  a  mere  incident  of  magazines 
and  newspapers.  Trained  to  mention  magazines 
and  newspapers  "  when  writing  to  advertisers " 
many  appealers  credential  themselves  by  sending  or 
quoting  items  from  newspapers  or  magazines.  / 
seen  in  my  paper  a  couple  of  times;  .  .  .  /  saw 
advertised  in  my  paper;  .  .  .  After  reading  in 
the  county  papers. 

As  reiteration  makes  advertised  articles  a  part 
of  our  everyday  thinking,  so  being  advertised 
through  news  items,  editorials  and  magazine  arti- 
cles, or  self  advertising  through  special  cars,  sum- 
mer homes,  automobiles,  opera  parties,  horse  shows 
and  "  Ransom's  Follies  "  makes  the  rich  a  part  of 
the  daily  thinking  of  the  not-yet-rich,  the  needy  and 
those  who  work  for  the  needy.  While  setting  here 
this  lonely  and  dreary  night  my  thoughts  were  of 
you;  .  .  .  While  I  am  sitting  here  tonight  in 
my  lonely  little  room  arocking  my  two  little  babies, 

151 


152  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

my  thought  goes  out  to  you;  .  .  .  Knowing  of 
your  benevolent  interest  we  turn 

It  is  the  being  known  to  be  rich  that  brings  let- 
ters of  appeal,  and  not  the  being  rich.  It  is  the 
being  known  to  give  and  not  the  giving  that  mul- 
tiplies begging  letters.  "To  him  who  hath  it  shall 
be  given  "  is  no  more  peremptory  or  prophetic  than 
"  of  him  who  hath  it  shall  be  asked."  A  person 
who  has  given  is  more  apt  to  give  than  one  who 
has  not  yet  learned  the  habit  of  giving.  Likewise 
a  rich  person  is  more  apt  to  reply  to  a  letter  of  ap- 
peal after  his  giving  has  been  made  known  than  be- 
fore. 

The  advertising  of  big  gifts  means  the  advertise 
ing  of  new  possibilities  for  all  who  read  about  such 
gifts.  It  would  seem  so  strange  to  have  a  little 
help;  my  heart  would  jump  in  my  throat.  By  writ- 
ing to  a  strange  person  able  to  help  she  gets  that 
heart  jump  in  the  throat  every  time  she  thinks  about 
it ;  every  time  a  letter  comes  in  strange  handwriting. 

There  is  always  the  big  first  gift.  The  not-yet- 
giver  who  is  able  to  give  may  be  tomorrow's  biggest 
giver.  What  is  more  legitimate,  therefore,  than 
spending  two  cents  in  writing  to  any  person  known 
to  be  rich  enough  to  give? 

Are  the  Rich  Imposed  upon  by  "  Begging  Letters?  " 

Being  known  means  influence.  Advertising 
brings  influence.  Many  of  the  poor  man's  most 
generous  thoughts  are  vicarious,  i.e.,  picturing  the 


THE  RIGHT  TO  APPEAL  158 

good  he  could  do  with  riches.  /  was  thinking  how 
quickly  my  heart  and  hand  would  be  opened  to  an- 
other sister  were  I  in  your  place.  Influence  is  trus- 
teeship. What  people  think  about  the  rich  does 
more  harm  or  more  good  than  what  people  get  from 
the  rich.  One  index  of  the  rich  man's  influence  is 
the  "  begging  letter."  Infinitely  more  important  is 
the  personal  relation  that  he  thus  establishes  with 
the  millions  who  happen  not  to  write,  than  with  the 
few  who  do  write. 

The  rich  are  no  more  imposed  upon  by  "  begging 
letters  "  than  are  the  poor  imposed  upon  by  having 

23"     TH^^a,       c~usJ~,    <urlLas/~    ^CcX^     C&n^<isv*>istst</-y~ 

flaunted  before  them  news  items  regarding  the  rich. 
It  is  no  more  an  affront  to  a  rich  man  for  a  poor 
farmer's  wife  to  write  a  letter  of  appeal  than   for 


154    .        MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

him  to  give  his  photograph  to  the  magazine  to 
haunt  or  stimulate  the  distant  farmer's  household. 
Had  I  a  little  of  what  so  many  waste  it  would 
more  than  supply  my  needs.  Why  should  this  re- 
fined woman  of  over  60  contentedly  go  to  an  alms- 
house or  home  for  the  aged  when  her  next  door 
neighbors  are  unwittingly  or  willingly  wasting  more 
than  will  maintain  her  in  independence?  We  can- 
not hold  up  successful  men  and  women  for  the  emu- 
lation of  school  boys  and  girls  and  then  consistently 
repress  every  effort  on  their  part  when  grown  up 
to  have  fairyland  contact  with  the  much-talked- 
about  rich  or  otherwise  successful. 

Professional  men  do  not  regard  it  as  an  imposi- 
tion to  receive  letters  from  strangers.  It  is  the 
most  natural,  neighborly  thing  in  the  world  for  peo- 
ple needing  help  for  themselves  or  for  others  to 
turn  to  the  sources  whence  help  may  conceivably  be 
obtained.  When  newspapers  say  a  New  York  phi- 
lanthropist gives  $40,000  to  all  20  year  employees 
of  railroads  with  which  he  has  just  severed  connec- 
tions, it  is  logical  for  an  employee  of  a  railroad 
with  which  Mrs.  Harriman  has  not  severed  connec- 
tion to  ask  for  a  similar  remembrance  of  20  year 
employees.  The  unfounded  announcement  that 
Mrs.  Harriman  would  start  a  university  on  a  west- 
ern coast  led  to  numerous  letters  from  western 
chambers  of  commerce,  college  presidents,  business 
men,  etc,  which  contained  at  least  three  proposals 
well  worth  attention:  agricultural,  industrial  and 
vocational  training  for  the   deaf  and  almost   deaf; 


From  Photographs  Enclosed 


(Multigraphed  original  handwriting) 


From  Photograph*  Enclosed 
APPEALS   WITHOUT   WORDS 


FEW  PEOPLE  APPEAL  1  >> 

a  great  Polytechnic  school;  a  large  university  for 
the  southwest. 

Have  not  most  of  our  institutions  of  learning 
and  of  charity  been  built  up  by  putting  a  two  cent 
stamp  on  a  letter  to  some  rich  man  or  woman? 
Why  should  not  a  man  owning  $2,500  try  to  sub- 
stitute a  loan  at  6%  —  profitable  to  the  loaner  — 
for  his  present  hard  luck  loan  of  10%  ?  What  is 
the  difference  between  a  mayor's  asking  gifts  for 
the  Titanic  relief  fund  and  a  mother's  asking  any 
rich  person  for  clothing  and  employment  for  her 
husband  because  the  city  was  burned  to  ashes;  we 
lost  our  home  and  were  glad  to  get  away  alive.  In- 
stead of  being  always  doubtful  of  people  who  are 
willing  to  write  to  strangers  who  live  in  another  city, 
the  general  secretary  of  a  western  associated  chari- 
ties should  remember  that  a  large  part  of  the  ap- 
peals to  her  society  are  appeals  in  person  and  that 
her  state  gets  most  of  its  civilization,  its  books,  steel 
and  pianos,  by  writing  to  strangers  in  other  cities. 

Four  thousand  letters  in  two  years  from  Amer- 
ican neighbors  is  a  pitifully  small  number  when  one 
considers  the  persons  whose  children  need  help  or 
whose  public  work  needs  money.  Letters  of  appeal 
are  more  often  evidence  of  intelligence  and  pro- 
gressiveness  than  of  ignorance.  There  has  been 
almost  an  entire  lack  of  letters  of  appeal  from  indi- 
vidual negroes.  As  the  race  advances  its  appeals 
will  increase.  The  failure  of  people  to  appeal  and 
to  protest  is,  in  a  large  percentage  of  cases,  due  to 
the  same  mental  and  character  defects  which  pre- 


156  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

vent  people  from  getting  ahead.  The  gaps  are  too 
large  between  their  seeing,  wondering,  making  up 
their  mind  and  getting  into  action. 

Instead  of  being  regarded  as  impositions  upon 
the  rich,  letters  of  appeal  should  be  regarded  as  by- 
products of  being  known  to  have  opportunity  and 
as  index  of  further  opportunity. 

It  has  paid  to  write  to  the  rich.  It  has  paid  the 
rich,  the  poor  and  society  as  a  whole.  It  still  pays 
to  write  to  the  rich.  See  the  princely  giving! 
Think  of  the  windfalls !  To  keep  people  from  writ- 
ing to  the  rich  under  present  circumstances  is  as 
impossible  and  as  undesirable  as  to  keep  the  Hud- 
son river  from  trying  to  find  an  easier  way  from 
from  West  Point  to  the  Statue  of  Liberty. 

Nevertheless,  what  is  perfectly  justifiable  from 
the  standpoint  of  present  appealing  and  of  society 
wishing  light  upon  needs  not  met  becomes  an  im- 
possible burden  to  the  person  appealed  to.  There- 
fore, it  becomes  necessary  for  society  itself  to  sug- 
gest ways  by  which  the  rich  man's  mail  can  be  at- 
tended to  without  inhibiting  the  donor's  desire  to 
give  and  without  encouraging  him  to  neglect  mani- 
fest necessities. 

To  interest  appealer  and  prospective  giver  in 
methods  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of  appealing  and 
giving  is  your  duty  and  mine,  and  one  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  clearing  house  hereafter  proposed  in 
Part  III. 


The  Right  to  an  Answer 

The  right  to  ask  is  as  inalienable  as  the  right  to 
give.  To  concede  that  the  individual  receiver  of 
"  begging  letters  "  is  under  no  obligation  to  answer 
all  or  any  letters  does  not  deprive  the  needy  person 
or  the  mendicant  person  of  a  right  to  some  answer 
by  somebody.  Least  of  all  does  it  deprive  society 
of  its  right  to  have  "  begging  letters  "  answered  in 
a  way  that  will  help  society  as  a  whole,  whether  an- 
swering involves  rebuke  and  even  punishment  of  the 
letter  writer,  sympathetic  explanation  of  refusal  or 
adequate  assistance. 

The  following  writers  are  cited  as  persons  entitled 
—  in  default  of  evidence  that  conditions  are  not  as 
stated  —  to  some  kind  of  answer,  as  an  act  of  hu- 
manity on  the  part  of  the  person  or  group  receiving 
the  letters,  and  as  an  act  of  protection  to  society 
against  either  preventable  suffering  or  imposture. 

Grandparents:  sending  photographs  of  two 
grandchildren  obviously  in  need  of  operation 
for  adenoids ;  living  on  bread  and  potatoes  and 
water  gravy;  wanting  to  educate  grandson, 
blind  in  one  eye  who  likes  to  go  to  school,  learns 
easy  and  has  his  lessons  good;  left  with  this 
dear  little  boy  to  bring  up 

Mothers:  with  a  just  claim  but  not  knowing  how 
to  bring  claims  into  court;  deserted  two  weeks 

157 


158  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

before  second  baby  was  born ;  supporting  blind 
husband  and  daughter  who  helped  with  support 
until  six  weeks  ago  she  took  acute  inflammatory 
rheumatism;  of  63  with  an  invalid  girl  and  sick 
sister  to  work  for  on  failing  health;  of  nine 
children  with  invalid  husband  in  a  town  without 
hospital,  needing  $300  to  defray  expenses  of  op- 
eration ;  of  apparently  excellent  education,  con- 
valescing from  operation,  wanting  $300  to  go 
to  hospitals  where  they  guarantee  a  cure  in  eight 
weeks  for  $200  as  during  ten  weeks  the  doctor 
fed  me  morphine  until  now  I  cannot  do  without 
it.  What  better  university  extension  work  is 
there  than  correspondence  courses  in  a  "  stiff 
upper  lip  "  for  the  woman  whose  husband  has 
had  asthma  all  his  life,  now  has  tuberculosis,  his 
kidneys  are  in  bad  shape  now  too,  and  who  her- 
self has  chronic  rheumatism  and  is  weak  and 
nervous?  A  story  that  belongs  in  nobody's 
waste  basket  is  that  of  a  woman  writing  from  a 
skin  and  cancer  hospital  where  she  had  come 
for  the  thirty  seventh  time,  has  had  twelve 
large  abdominal  operations  and  twenty  five 
tappings.  Any  mother  of  nine  or  eleven  chil- 
dren who  has  found  time  to  write  a  letter  is 
entitled  to  an  answer 

Fathers :  A  physician  who  often  has  made  an  ex- 
cuse to  leave  the  house  about  meal  time,  staying 
away  until  they  had  eaten,  simply  to  give  the 
children  enough  to  eat;  well  known  in  his  own 
community  who  cannot  condone  son's  conduct 
but  wishes  to  keep  financial  difficulties  from  the 
mother ;  with  atrophy  of  optic  nerve  brought 
on  by  blood  poisoning,  in  need  of  employment 

High  school  boy  who  believes  that  his  record  in 


ENTITLED  TO  AN  ANSWER  159 

college  will  depend  a  great  deal  upon  the  funds 
I  am  able  to  produce;  a  man  who  writes  that  he 
saw  a  lot  of  young  girls  taken  to  the  drinking 
room  of  a  New  York  saloon  and  then  locked  in 
with  a  number  of  men  (This  led  to  closing  a 
low  dive)  ;  a  policeman  who  has  tuberculosis  and 
must  be  sent  to  the  country  and  whose  wife 
writes  /  have  only  $4.0  a  month  to  support  us 
and  there  are  five  children  from  nine  to  three; 
a  carpet  layer  of  fifty  whose  knees  are  giving 
out;  even  a  young  farmer  with  plenty  of  prop- 
erty but  without  ready  cash  to  get  married  with 
Nurse  of  fifty  who  has  lost  her  power  to  work  by 
having  frozen  her  feet ;  officials  of  a  private  hos- 
pital whence  a  patient  complains  that  bathing 
facilities  were  not  in  use,  toilet  arrangements 
could  not  have  been  more  primitive  4.00  years 
agoy  a  more  desirable  diet  may  be  had  at  some 
section  houses  for  only  fifty  cents  a  day;  a  wife 
who  wanted  money  to  pay  debts  which  she  had 
contracted  without  her  husband's  knowledge;  a 
neighbor  who  asks  for  a  friend  who  helped  to 
take  care  of  her  mother,  then  of  her  aunt,  is 
now  old,  alone  and  poor;  a  woman  journalist 
whose  mind  is  too  distracted  with  anxiety 
and  physical  deprivation  to  concentrate  my 
thought;  four  children  whose  father  was  killed 
in  railroad  accident  whose  mother  writes:  / 
have  lost  my  health,  my  little  ones  are  hungry; 
a  neighbor  who  writes  of  a  young  married  man 
stricken  down  suddenly  with  hemorrhage  of  the 
lungs  and  tuberculosis  .  .  .  without  means 
.  .  .  out  of  work  three  or  four  weeks 
the  woman  has  not  even  a  pair  of  good 
shoes;  widow  whose  paralytic  son  is  a  heavy 


160  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

drain  on  farm  earnings  and  who  pays  $16  every 
month  on  a  loan  of  $225;  sister  of  16  whose 
brother  needs  $75  to  get  his  teeth  fixed 

Son  who  had  a  nice  library  which  he  is  selling 
piecemeal  to  get  food  so  you  may  know  how  he 
needs  employment;  another  son  with  obviously 
good  training  who  in  trying  to  make  mother's 
life  easier  was  lured  into  Wall  Street  and  lost 
$2,700  of  her  money 

Those  whose  cause  is  worthy,  above  all  those  whose 
cause  is  unworthy,  whether  institutions  or  in- 
dividuals; anyone  who  wants  $2,000  not  in  a 
check  but  in  bills  as  I  could  not  bear  to  have 
anyone  know  I  had  asked  for  help 

Even  a  spiritualist  who  purports  to  be  amanuen- 
sis for  Abraham  Lincoln  would  probably  benefit 
from  being  told  that  she  has  the  address  wrong 
and  the  name,  and  all  other  incidents  mentioned 
in  her  dictation 

Men  and  women  who  see  human  needs  and  ways 
of  meeting  them  by  retail  and  by  wholesale 

-    I  do  not  wish  to  be  a  nuisance  with  my  letter  r? 
tut  we  men  who  are  trying  to  over-see  this'worki 
helieve  sofaeartily  in  it  that  I- feel  1  must  write  you* 

Why  Do  the  Rich  Give? 

For  the  discussion  of  benefactions  before  a  club 
of  magazine  writers,  socialist  and  near-socialist,  I 
was  once  asked  to  substitute  for  E.  T.  Devine.  The 
club's  practice  was  to  have  one  address  of  about  W 
minutes  after  which  each  guest  at  the  table  gave 
his   views.     The   following   are   among  the   reasons 


WHY  THE  RICH  GIVE  161 

for  private  benefactions  which  were  given  by  men 
who  write  for  national  audiences:  remorse;  desire 
to  stem  the  tide  of  socialism*,  desire  to  create  di- 
vertisement  for  the  sake  of  leaving  freer  the  field 
for  exploitation ;  self  indulgence  while  living ;  "  in- 
dulgences "  after  death ;  self  advertising ;  love  of  dis- 
play; social  advancement;  gratifying  whims  and 
spites. 

This  conception  of  givers'  motives  I  have  always 
believed  was  due  to  lack  of  contact.  Therefore  I 
urged  that  I  was  willing  to  apply  to  the  rich  man's 
giving  any  tests  which  this  group  was  willing  to 
apply  to  its  own  interest  in  social  advancement. 
Most  of  them  had  attended  benefaction  colleges  and 
were  waxing  famous  from  capitalistic  earnings. 
How,  really,  was  the  giver's  social,  interest  substan- 
tially different  from  their  own?  The  rich  give  for 
the  same  reason  that  the  near  rich  or  the  never  rich 
give,  because  they  like  to  or  because  they  dislike  it 
less  than  they  dislike  alternatives  presented,  such  as 
refusing  a  friend  or  persuasive  officer,  being  nagged 
by  a  collector,  seeming  mean  to  persons  who  send 
subscription  books,  etc.  Within  these  two  reasons 
are-  an  infinite  number  of  sub-reasons^which  have  a 
bearing  upon  the  problem  of  educating  everyone  for 
public  giving.  I  say  everyone  because  if  there  is 
any  man  meaner  than  a  rich  man  who  does  not  give 
money,  it  is  a  not-rich  man  who  does  not  give  either 
money  or  thought  for  help  to  others. 

To  think  right  about  a  neighbor's  problem  is  the 


162  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

most  important  contribution  that  any  man  can  make. 
To  make  that  contribution  is  incumbent  upon  rich 
and  poor  alike.  Failure  to  aim  for  that  contribu- 
tion is  a  fatal  mistake  often  made  by  those  who  ap- 
peal for  uplift  purposes,  and  a  mistake  which  will 
be  less  frequent  after  appealing  and  giving  are 
frankly  discussed. 

Seven  Motives  for  Giving 
To   givers'   interest  there   are  seven   distinct   ap- 
proaches.    These  seven  touch-springs  or  motives  are 
noted,  and  illustrated,  in  the  order  of  their  develop- 
ment within  individuals  and  within  communities: 

1.  Instinct  —  Save  a  baby's  life 

2.  Comfort  —  Fresh  air  contribution  before  leav- 

ing for  mountain  or  seashore 

3.  Commerce  —  Give    and    advertise    trade    dis- 

counts to  orphan  asylums 

4.  Anti-nuisance  —  Give   to   an   importunate   ap- 

pealer for  a  day  nursery 

5.  Anti-slum  —  Free  vaccination  for  slum  babies 

6.  Pro-slum  —  House   to   house   nursing   for   the 

babies'  sake 

7.  Recognition  of  rights  — 100%  health  protec- 

tion for  100%  of  babies,  not  as  a  gift  but  as 
their  right 

Instead  of  complicating  the  problem  of  giving 
and  of  appealing,  the  analysis  of  motives  under 
these  seven  workable  headings  will  help  because  these 
motives  are  all  present  —  awake  or  dormant  —  in 
each  individual  or  group.  You  never  met  a  man  or 
woman  who  was  not  ready  to  act  on  one  or  more 


WHY  THE    RICH  GIVE  163 

of  these  seven  motives.  It  would  indeed  speak  ill 
of  God's  image  if  altruism  were  not  more  gen- 
eral than  contribution  lists  now  indicate, —  ill  for 
religion  and  education  if  there  must  ever  be  re- 
ligious and  educated  men  who  are  not  givers. 

Few  of  us  have  reached  the  stage  where  we  give 
energy  and  time  to  others  from  a  recognition  of 
others'  rights  to  such  thought  and  means  as  we  are 
able  to  give.  Yet  so  much  has  been  done  to  expand 
the  list  of  recognized  human  rights  that  no  agency 
may  feel  safe  in  leaving  out  the  rights  motive. 

The  person  who  gives  from  instinct  today  gives 
tomorrow  from  instinct  plus  desire  for  comfort,  as 
the  land  which  once  nourished  the  forest  primeval 
now  supports  diversified  industries  and  pleasures 
still  more  diversified. 

The  person  who  today  gives  from  the  anti-slum 
motive  to  protect  himself  and  his  children  from  dis- 
eases and  annoyances  associated  in  his  mind  with 
some  particular  section  of  city  or  country,  gives  to- 
morrow from  a  desire  to  help  that  section,  i  e., 
the  pro-slum  motive.  So  the  charity  of  today 
will  tomorrow  favor  auto-taxation  for  making  that 
charity  unnecessary. 

If  our  appeals  aim  at  motives  we  shall  get  more 
money  than  if  :we  aim  at  men  or  money.  Many  an 
agency  has  lost  friends  and  endowments  because  it 
failed  to  recognize  that  the  rest  of  the  world  is  edu- 
cating givers  away  from  instinct  or  anti-slum  mo- 
tives   and   is    demanding   that   philanthropic   effort 


164  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

shall  anchor  to  interest  in  or  love  for  those  who  are 
to  be  helped,  and  later  to  a  recognition  of  the  right 
to  equal  opportunity.  Municipal  research  based 
solely  on  desire  to  check  waste  and  exploitation  will 
by  its  success  cut  off  its  own  support  for  the  later 
cooperative  work  to  which  its  exposure  of  waste  and 
exploitation  should  lead. 

Those  appeal  best  who  appeal  to  100%  of  the 
seven  motives  of  100%  of  the  public  served.  For 
generations  to  come  the  differences  among  men  and 
women  will  cause  a  steady  flow  out  of  each  motive 
for  giving,  up  to  a  more  complex  motive,  away  from 
localized  philanthropy  up  to  general  philanthropy, 
just  as  a  rising  standard  of  living  means  demand 
for  a  more  varied  diet  and  more  varied  recreation. 

One's  giving  should  be  "  in  character." 

No  person  should  give  beyond  his  comprehension. 
Every  person  is  under  obligation  to  give  up  to  his 
comprehension.  The  person  who  sees  a  national 
need  is  under  obligation  to  promote  it.  The  per- 
son who  sees  a  state  need  is  not  free  to  neglect  it 
in  the  interest  of  city  needs.  Like  the  rungs  in  the 
ladder  of  industry,  the  lower  rungs  in  givers'  mo- 
tives are  always  crowded,  and  only  sustained  edu- 
cational effort  brings  competition  in  the  upper 
rungs. 

As  it  is  important  to  inform  every  thinking,  feel- 
ing man  and  woman  with  regard  to  social  needs,  so 
it  is  important  to  appeal  to  every  side  of  each  man 
and  woman.     Because  this  is  difficult  many  charities 


WHY  THE  RICH  GIVE  165 

declare  it  is  impossible,  and  in  their  despair,  send 
out  to  all  alike  the  tale  of  wretchedness  or  helpless- 
ness that  is  thought  to  make  the  whole  world  kin. 
The  collective  mendicant,  like  the  vagrant  on  the 
street,  tells  its  hard  luck  story,  bares  a  scalded  arm, 
shows  a  physician's  certificate,  and,  again  like  the 
street  beggar,  receives  a  passing  thought  with  or 
without  a  dole.  What  effect  does  this  crude  emo-. 
tionalism  have  upon  you;  do  you  not  become  cal- 
loused, requiring  deeper  and  deeper  incisions  to  stir 
your  sensibilities?  It  takes  most  of  us  but  a  short 
time  to  become  inured  to  ordinary  hard  luck  tales 
and  insensible  to  others'  suffering  unless  the  ther- 
mometer falls  to  zero  or  rises  to  one  hundred,  or  un- 
til a  theater  or  excursion  boat  burns  amid  unspeak- 
able horror.  Unfortunately  for  the  starvation- 
broken-leg-blind-widow-with-five-children  appeal,  our 
nervous  system  requires  ever  increasing  doses  of 
this  sympathy  drug,  beyond  the  capacity  of  the 
English  language  or  human  suffering  to  supply. 
After  trying  such  appeals  for  a  few  years  many  so- 
cieties become  discouraged,  lapse  to  the  personal 
equation  zone  again,  content  to  raise  the  same  sum 
and  to  do  the  same  quantity  of  work  this  year  and 
next  year  as  ten  years  ago,  dipping  water  from  the 
stream  without  depleting  the  springs  of  suffering 
at  their  source. 

In  religious  work  it  has  been  found  that  backslid- 
ing and  indifference  are  ineffectually  checked  by 
semi-annual   camp   meetings    and   revivals.     Strong 


166  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Christian  character  is  never  developed  until  religion 
appeals  to  all  sides  of  the  individual.  To  learn 
these  sides  men  give  a  lifetime,  and  to  educate  them 
equally  churches  have  organized  every  manner  of 
educational  and  social  activity.  No  successful  pas- 
tor relies  upon  one  emotional  appeal.  Rather  does 
he  adapt  his  teaching  and  his  exhortation  to  the 
multiple  moods  and  motives  in  the  pew.  Charitable 
appeals  must  likewise  evolve  from  emotionalism  until 
they  aim  at  the  whole  man.  If  this  cannot  be  done 
in  every  single  letter,  circular  or  advertisement,  it 
can  be  done  by  the  combined  statements  sent  out  to 
the  same  man  in  the  course  of  a  year.  It  is  not 
so  difficult  as  it  seems.  The  more  motives  appealed 
to  the  greater  the  probability  of  a  hearing,  the  more 
intense  and  persistent  the  support,  and  the  less  likely 
his  interest  to  die  when  once  awakened. 

Caprice  is  a  poor  anchor.  The  man  who  gives 
from  impulse  today  is  apt  to  be  repelled  tomorrow 
by  the  very  sight  or  sound  or  mental  picture  that 
now  stimulates  his  generosity.  Interest  dependent 
upon  desire  for  comfort,  for  display  or  profit  will 
not  continue  when  wealth  surfeits  its  possessor,  or 
when  larger  and  more  gratifying  returns  may  be 
obtained  by  means  of  a  yacht,  an  automobile  or  a 
winter  in  Florida.  On  the  other  hand,  as  soon  as 
the  crippled  child  becomes  a  type,  givers  will  pre- 
fer to  support  an  agency  to  eradicate  the  tuber- 
cular germ  that  produces  crippled  children.  An- 
tagonism  to   the   slum   develops   quickly   into   sym- 


WHY  THE  RICH  GIVE  167 

pathy  for  its  denizens.  Both  antagonism  and  sym- 
pathy may  be  made  to  lead  to  a  recognition  of  re- 
ligious obligation  to  do  one's  share  to  prevent  slum 
conditions  and  to  the  democratic  appreciation  of 
the  tenement  child's  right  to  opportunity  because 
he  is  Man. 

Whatever  may  be  today's  dominant  motive  it  is 
the  fault  of  the  recipient  society  if  the  selfish  inter- 
est of  today  is  not  by  tomorrow  converted  into  genu- 
ine delight  in  making  others  happy.  Those  who 
write  appeals  cannot  continuously  arouse  more  mo- 
tives than  they  themselves  possess,  nor  more  motives 
than  are  expressed  in  the  work  they  aim  to 
strengthen.  If  interest  in  a  man  docs  not  lead  to 
concern  for  the  conditions  in  which  Man  lives. —  if 
the  impulse  of  the  first  gift  does  not  ripen  into  a 
sense  of  obligation  independent  of  weather's  ex- 
tremes, personal  acquaintance,  comfort,  safety,  dis- 
play or  profit  —  charitable  and  civic  endeavor  can- 
not be  constructive,  cannot  remove  the  conditions 
that  make  it  necessary.  This  education  of  individ- 
ual and  community  from  impulse  up  to  recognition 
of  the  rights  of  others  will  undoubtedly  be  hastened 
by  the  more  general  use  of  mailing  list  and  press 
appeals  in  behalf  of  work  that  merits  and  occasions 
press  comment.  When  progress  is  measured  by  mo- 
tives enlisted,  by  contributions  of  heart  and  mind  in- 
terest and  not  by  mere  money  gifts,  the  name  "  char- 
itable "  will  no  longer  be  limited  to  an  infinitesimal 
portion  of  our  American  communities. 


168  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

An  Apology  for  the  Commercial  Motive 

Philanthropy's  next  to  the  highest  expression  is 
the  business  enterprise  where  commerce  and  philan- 
thropy combine  to  cater  to  some  heretofore  neg- 
lected need,  such  as  model  tenements,  model  lodging 
houses,  model  pawn  shops,  model  dairies,  employ- 
ment agencies  interested  in  placing  handicapped 
men  and  women,  improvements  in  transportation  or 
in  manufacture  which  reduce  the  cost  of  living. 

Deplore,  as  we  must,  the  man  who  has  a  commer- 
cial motive  for  his  philanthropy,  history  teaches  us 
to  admire  and  to  multiply  as  fast  as  possible  the 
men  who  let  philanthropy  inspire  their  commerce. 
Applied  medicine  is  most  successful  when  it  is  fol- 
lowed by  nurses  wishing  employment,  surgical 
houses  wishing  to  sell  bandages  and  pain  saving  ap- 
pliances, commercial  houses  wishing  to  sell  sanitary 
clothing  and  hygienic  food,  amusement  houses  wish- 
ing to  sell  clean  and  profitable  recreation  and  en- 
joyment. Real  estate  men  are  coming  to  see  that 
there  is  profit  in  reserving  park  and  play  space,  as 
insurance  companies  see  money  saved  in  "  baby  num- 
bers "  of  their  bulletins  and  in  other  efforts  to  keep 
policy  holders  alive  and  well.  Great  corporations 
provide  profit  sharing  and  old  age  pensions,  not  as 
doles,  but  as  investments  and  guarantees  of  good 
will  and  permanence  of  service.  If  welfare  work 
is  a  good  investment  for  corporations,  as  it  is,  then 
its  promotion  is  not  less  philanthropic  because  it 
pays. 


THE  COMMERCIAL  MOTIVE  169 

Studying  and  eradicating  tropical  diseases  is  no 
nobler  in  the  name  of  abstract  science  than  in  the 
name  of  business  houses  whose  dividends  will  grow 
as  these  diseases  are  eradicated.  The  uttermost 
part  of  the  world  would  never  be  given  the  educa- 
tional moving  picture  were  it  not  for  the  commercial 
motive.  Efficient  standards  of  public  administra- 
tion will  never  be  universalized  until  public  spirit 
and  philanthropy  animate  commerce  to  sell  such  ef- 
ficiency over  a  counter,  as  it  were.  We  shall  never 
be  sure  of  clean  milk  until  *the  commercial  motive  is 
enlisted  in  its  production.  The  nearest  approaches 
in  this  country  to  cooperation  and  organization  of 
private  philanthropy  is  in  communities  like  Cleve- 
land, Duluth,  Newark  and  Rochester  where  commer- 
cial clubs  have  begun  to  do  for  business  reasons 
what  a  few  leaders  elsewhere  are  urging  for  philan- 
thropic reasons. 

Efficiency  in  giving  and  in  will  making  will  receive 
its  greatest  impetus  after  consulting  experts  on  giv- 
ing and  will  making  go  into1  the  market  for  busi- 
ness, advertising  their  service  to  lawyers,  doctors 
and  societies  for  a  fee  commensurate  with  service 
rendered. 

The  Vagrant  Giver 

The  essence  of  vagrancy  is  not  poverty,  but  ab- 
sence of  anchorage,  fixed  relation,  settled  purpose, 
or,  as  Webster  says,  "  moving  without  certain  di- 
rection, wandering,  erratic,  unsettled." 

Millionaire  as  well  as  pauper  may  be  a  vagrant. 


170  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Givers  are  often  more  vagrant  in  their  interest,  pur- 
pose and  methods  than  are  street  beggars.  Ef- 
forts to  abolish  vagrant  begging  have  been  rela- 
tively ineffective  because  we  have  not  attacked  va- 
grant giving. 

Giving  is  vagrant  if  arbitrary  or  if  refusals  are 
arbitrary.  Giving  may  be  vagrant  from  society's 
point  of  view  although  not  vagrant  when  measured 
by  the  individual's  own  light.  Whether  giving  is 
socially  vagrant  or  not  depends  upon  whether  the  re- 
cipient and  society  are  helped  or  injured. 

When  the  president  of  a  billion  dollar  corporation 
gives  $1,000  after  one  look  at  a  bread  line  it  means 
not  that  he  is  overcome  with  generosity,  but  that 
he  is  making  a  demonstration  of  vagrancy  in  giving. 

When  a  diner-out  pays  $50,000  for  a  dinner  com- 
panion's lugubrious  picture  of  a  sanitarium's  needs, 
he  shows  lack  of  anchorage  just  as  much  as  the 
man  who  was  so  moved  by  a  sick  man  in  a  faint  that" 
he  divested  himself  of  watch,  money,  coat  and  vest, 
or  the  Canadian  minister  who  came  to  New  York 
with  mind  so  filled  about  pictures  of  its  poverty  that 
at  the  first  request  for  bread  he  emptied  his  pockets, 
—  of  non-passable   Canadian   coin. 

The  "  dinner  charm "  method  of  raising  funds 
encourages  "  dinner  charm "  method  of  spending 
funds.  It  takes  much  longer  for  street  beggars 
or  begging  letter  writers  to  earn  $50,000  than  for 
vagrant  interest  to  give  it  away.  A  gentleman  re- 
marked to  his  daughter  that  a  neighbor  was  feeling 


VAGRANT  GIVING  171 

generous  and  it  would  be  a  good  time  to  "  talk  one 
of  her  pet  charities  to  him."  She  thereupon  casu- 
ally dropped  in  that  evening.  The  neighbor  in 
question  gave  her  $50,000  for  an  institution  which, 
however  admirable  of  its  kind,  represents  an  ought- 
to-be-obsolete  kind. 

In  reply  to  one  of  my  letters  suggesting  that  his 
city  must  be  amply  able  to  provide  a  requisite  mis- 
sion house  without  making  appeals  to  New  York- 
ers, a  minister  wrote  that  the  test  of  the  pudding 
was  in  the  eating,  and  that  writing  to  New  York 
churchmen  paid  because  out  of  100  letters  written 
65  had  brought  answers,  one  of  them  being  a  check 
in  three  figures  from  an  officer  of  the  Bureau  of  Mu- 
nicipal Research. 

Much  good  may  come  from  vagrant  giving  just 
as  there  is  much  good  in  vagrant  beggars.  The 
original  of  our  modern  vagrants  was  the  welcomed 
itinerant  historian,  musician  and  dramatist.  The 
defect  in  street  giving  to  vagrant  beggars  is  not 
that  it  ignores  the  existence  of  organized  charity, 
but  that  it  gives  too  little,  harming  at  one  time  the 
beggar,  the  giver  and  the  neighbors  of  both.  So 
the  trouble  with  vagrant  giving  in  whatever 
amounts  is  not  merely  that  it  gives  often  to  wrong 
things,  but  that  it  gives  irresponsibly  without  know- 
ing results  and  without  lasting  satisfaction  to  the 
giver. 

Until  charity  experts  recognize  that  ill  considered 
giving  to  organized  charity,  colleges  and  churches 


172  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

is  just  as  reprehensible  as  ill  considered  giving  to 
persons  on  the  street,  little  substantial  headway  can 
be  made  against  street  giving. 

It  is  vagrancy  and  not  the  financial  status  of  the 
vagrant  that  is  anti-social.  We  shall  never  get  rid 
of  the  vagrant  giver  by  scolding  or  reviling  or  im- 
prisoning the  vagrant  beggar.  The  best  way  to 
convert  the  vagrant  giver  is  to  confront  him  with 
so  many  attractive  alternatives  that  he  will  have 
more  satisfactory  ways  of  spending  his  money  than 
on  people  he  knows  nothing  about  and  for  stories 
he  has  not  tested. 

The  Limitation  of  the  Personal  Interview 

The  superiority  of  the  personal  interview  over 
written  or  printed  appeals  is  so  obvious  that  it  is 
sought  wherever  possible.  It  is  equally  obvious 
that  the  much  besieged  recipients  of  appeals  could 
do  very  little  else  if  they  made  a  point  of  granting 
personal  interviews.  This  method,  therefore,  is  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  individual  appealer  because 
it  is  impracticable  for  possible  donors  to  give  up 
their  lives  to  hearing  individual  stories.  For  the 
same  reason  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  most  benevo- 
lent agencies  and  is  limited,  for  the  most  part,  to 
those  causes  that  number  among  their  trustees  or 
influential  friends  persons  having  either  social  posi- 
tion which  must  be  recognized  or  professional  rela- 
tions with  the  person  to  be  interviewed. 

There  are  but  a  handful  of  men  and  women  in 


THE  INTERVIEW'S  LIMITS  17:5 

the  country  who  have  heretofore  shown  a  willingness 
to  grant  interviews  to  people  known  to  wish  the  in- 
terview for  an  appeal.  Many  experienced  trus- 
tees would  rather  make  a  contribution  themselves 
or  would  rather  ask  a  busy  man  or  woman  outright 
for  money  than  give  a  letter  of  introduction  or  ask 
for  a  personal  interview.  It  is  one  of  the  difficulties 
of  promoting  uplift  work  that  few  givers  have  so 
organized  their  means  of  obtaining  information  that 
they  have  a  chance  to  give  to  work  which  they  want 
to  do,  rather  than  to  people  whom  they  happen  to 
like  or  happen  to  be  unwilling  to  displease  or  dis- 
appoint. 

Mr.  Rockefeller  started  the  practice  of  eliminat- 
ing the  personal  relation  as  far  as  possible.  In 
theory,  at  least,  he  gives  all  causes  an  equal  chance 
by  requiring  that  they  be  described  briefly,  unemo- 
tionally and  by  supporting  facts,  in  writing.  This 
is  the  ideal  method  if  carried  out,  because  neither 
the  giver  nor  the  appealing  agency  ought  to  have 
attention  deflected  from  work  needed  to  the  person- 
ality of  the  appealer.  Nor  is  it  fair  to  a  benevolent 
cause  that  it  should  be  subjected  to  the  accidental 
interplay  of  personal  equations  in  an  interview,  or 
judged  by  the  begging  proclivities  or  efficiency  of 
its  representatives  instead  of  by  their  working  effi- 
ciency. 

To  a  degree  that  is  not  true  of  a  working  state- 
ment, one's  whole  case  at  an  interview  is  staked  on 
personal    equation.     One    of   the    country's    richest 


174  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

men  once  granted  an  interview  for  municipal  re- 
search. After  hearing  a  preliminary  statement,  he 
asked,  "  You  are  not  'working  outside  of  New  York 
City,  are  you  ?  "  That  was  the  chance  of  a  life- 
time to  explain  how  efficient  government  would  not 
be  possible  in  New  York  City  unless  it  was  made 
possible  elsewhere.  This  man's  imagination  could 
have  been  appealed  to  by  describing  a  nation's  need. 
His  question  frightened  the  two  gentlemen  who  in- 
terviewed him,  and  they  emphasized  what  he  would 
care  for  least,  namely,  localized  research  for  New 
York  City. 

The  experience  of  generations  has  proved  that 
success  in  collecting  money  has  almost  no  relation 
to  ability  to  present  the  cause  for  which  the  money 
is  requested.  A  minister  who  is  able  to  stampede 
his  congregation  and  persuade  them  to  empty  their 
pockets  for  foreign  missions  is  not  always  the  min- 
ister who  gives  the  truest  picture  of  foreign  mission 
work,  but  is  apt  to  be  the  minister  who  can  throw 
fear  of  hell  fire  or  hope  of  personal  salvation  into 
the  minds  and  souls  of  his  auditors,  or  else  tell  funny 
and  pathetic  stories.  So  the  woman  who  is  expert 
in  raising  money  for  the  poor  whites  of  the  South  is 
apt  to  be  a  woman  whose  personal  charm  and  power 
of  anecdote  would  be  equally  applicable  or  equally 
successful  in  discussing  modern  drama  or  the  pil- 
grimages of  Peter  the  Hermit. 

Not  one  out  of  a  thousand  of  the  rich  persons 
who  grant  interviews  has  the  comprehensive  back- 


INTERVIEWS  OR  SITTINGS?  175 

ground  of  information  or  the  desire  J*or  further  in- 
formation which  are  essential  to  an  effective  inter- 
terview.  Collateral  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the 
success  of  parlor  meetings  and  mass  meetings  where 
usually  the  drawing  card  is  a  person  who  knows  al- 
most nothing  of  the  cause  to  be  described. 

A  personal  interview  that  is  not  an  audience  is 
more  discouraging  than  no  answer  to  a  written  let- 
ter. You  can  keep  writing  to  the  man  or  woman 
who  has  not  answered  a  written  appeal.  You  can- 
not keep  interviewing  or  writing  to  the  man  or 
woman  who  has  given  what  is  called  an  interview, 
but  which,  in  a  distressingly  large  number  of  cases, 
is  a  mere  sitting.  I  have  known  many  a  good  cause 
to  receive  blows  in  the  face  by  such  sittings  in  the 
name  of  interviews  when,  as  an  indulgence  to  some 
personal  friend,  a  man  who  would  give  largely  if 
once  his  intelligence  were  enlisted  sits  or  dozes 
while  a  case  is  described  to  his  unwelcoming  ear. 

The  personal  interview  as  a  method  of  appeal 
will  never  be  fairly  utilized  until  possible  givers  take 
the  initiative  more  generally.  Most  rich  men  and 
women  have  been  afraid  of  initiative.  Instead  of 
equipping  themselves  to  get  out  from  under  the  toss- 
ing waters  of  promiscuous  appealing  and  to  direct 
their  own  course  by  their  own  intelligence  with  the 
aid,  where  necessary,  of  trained  assistants,  they  ac- 
cept the  position  of  bulkhead  against  which  water 
and  sand  pile  in  with  each  day's  mail.  The  cardi- 
nal defect  of  the  personal  interview  is  that  it  is  a 


176  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

means  of  miseducating  the  giver  into  believing  that 
there  is  some  way  in  which  a  generous  grant  of  10 
minutes  or  a  half  hour's  time  will  enable  him  to  un- 
derstand work  involving  the  uplift  of  a  race,  reform 
of  a  city  government  or  application  of  a  new  med- 
ical truth  to  health  service.  No  method  of  getting 
money  ought  to  substitute  a  10  minute  talk  for  some 
real  information.  It  should  never  be  forgotten, 
moreover,  that  the  greatest  impostors  in  the  char- 
ity field  accomplish  their  results  through  personal 
interview. 

Success  with  interviews  presumes  that  we  check 
the  inbreeding  on  boards  of  managers.  A  man  who 
is  "  on  "  a  dozen  boards  soon  reaches  the  limit  of  his 
power  to  solicit  personally  or  even  to  explain. 
When  we  have  built  up  our  giving  on  a  basis  of 
needs  clearly  seen  instead  of  requests  made,  inter- 
views will  be  reserved  for  questions  and  answers  in- 
stead of  harangues. 

The  best  personal  interview  is  that  sought  by  the 
giver.  Gradually,  efficiency  in  asking  questions  will 
develop  the  higher  type  of  personal  interview. 


WB  MUST  HAVE 

rich 

$8, 763. 41 

mean 

MORE,  or  LOSE 

come 

all  that  has 

matt 

he  en 

of  p 

SUBSCRIBED. 

the  , 

HOW  MUCH  of 

frle 

THIS  WILL  YOU 

Hund 

GIVE  on 

CHUR 

THIS  PLAN? 

grea 

Vagrant  Trusteeship 

One  reason  so  many  appeals  are  thrown  in  the 
waste  basket  is  that  people  who  have  money  are 
themselves  signing  appeals  in  which  they  have  little 
or  no  interest,  or  are  permitting  the  use  of  their 
names  on  letterheads  which  accompany  such  appeals. 
"  Rubber  stamping "  trustees  will  never  impress 
donors  or  public  with  the  seriousness  of  benevolent 
work. 

Too  many  boards,  when  a  vacancy  occurs,  look 
around  not  for  men  who  are  available  and  capable, 
but  men  who  are  on  so  many  boards  that  they  will 
be  known  to  everybody.  There  is  no  vagrancy  more 
obstructive  to  efficient  public  service  than  the  va- 
grancy of  benevolent  trustees  and  committeemen 
whose  names  are  as  well  known  on  letterheads  as  are 
the  faces  of  so  called  "  rounders  "  to  lodging  houses, 
relief  societies  and  clinics. 

Not  infrequently  such  trustees  telephone  to  So- 
ciety A  that  they  are  very  sorry  they  cannot  come 
to  the  meeting  today  because  they  must  attend  So- 
cieties B  and  C  at  that  same  hour. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  society  has  a  right  to  accept 
a  trustee  on  the  understanding  that  he  will  not  have 
to  do  any  work.  It  is  certainly  doubtful  if  any  man 
has  a  right  to  stand  as  an  exponent  of  a  cause  on 
condition  that  he  will  not  have  to  do  any  work. 

177 


178  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

It  is  doubtful  if  appeals  ought  to  be  sent  out  from 
any  agency  until  they  have  been  approved  by  the 
trustees  who  are  responsible  to  donors  and  to  the 
general  public.  While  referring  appeals  to  commit- 
tees may  be  desirable,  surely  the  time  is  coming 
when  the  burden  of  doing  benevolent  work  will  be  so 
equitably  distributed  that  all  trustees  will  have  en- 
ergy enough  and  time  enough  to  know  what  appeals 
they  are  sending  to  men  of  their  kind  for  attention 
and  gifts.  What  does  not  please  a  trustee  is  apt 
not  to  please  one  or  more  donors.  The  improve- 
ment which  suggests  itself  to  the  trustee  will  prob- 
ably suggest  itself  to  one  or  more  donors.  Simi- 
larly, the  annual  and  interim  reports  should  reflect 
trustees  at  least  enough  so  that  they  will  not  dis- 
avow their  acquaintance  or  responsibility.  At  pres- 
ent it  is  impossible  to  conduct  many  agencies  on  this 
plan  because  trustees  will  not  read  the  reports  be- 
fore they  come  out,  will  not  attend  meetings,  will 
not  pay  attention  to  forms  of  appeal.  As  one  of 
their  reasons  is  that  they  are  on  so  many  boards 
that  it  would  take  too  much  time,  so  one  remedy  is 
to  serve  on  no  more  boards  than  efficiency  permits. 
When  efficient  service  is  made  the  condition  of  di- 
rectorship, appeals  will  not  be  so  generally  dis- 
counted and  disregarded,  and  20  efficient  directors 
will  grow  where  one  grows  now. 

There  is  a  well  defined  theory  that  interchange 
of  trustees  adds  strength.  But  in  benevolent  work, 
as  in  corporation  work,  the  strength  is   too  often 


TOO  FEW  TRUSTEES  179 

absorbed  by  a  few  personalities  or  a  very  few  agen- 
cies and  always  to  the  disadvantage  *of  the  subsidi- 
ary company's  identity.  Where  the  subsidiary 
companies  are  needed,  avowed  absorption  is  not  only 
franker  but  more  efficient  than  indirect  compliance 
with  the  Sherman  law. 

The  Soul  of  Mendicancy 

/  have  set  my  alarm  for  two  a  m.  Each  time  it 
rings  I  will  rise  and  ask  God  to  ask  you  for 
$50,000  (state  financial  manager  of  a  home 
for  the  aged) 

God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver  • 

May  the  Holy  Spirit  do  His  work  in  your  heart 
and  lead  you  to  give  ($1,500,000  to  a  western 
university) 

It  is  my  conviction  that  God  calls  you  to  back 
up  financially  this  serious  and  permanent  work 
(to  be  done  by  an  appealer) 

As  this  is  a  personal  appeal  (from  the  finance 
committee  of  a  college  enrolling  190  students) 
we  would  appreciate  a  reply  over  your  own 
signature 

I  am  asking  not  for  myself,  but  for  the  organiza- 
tion in  whose  hands  the  people  place  this  work 

With  full  determination  (analogous  to  many  in- 
stitutional plans)  /  started  a  campaign  some- 
time ago  to  make  us.  a  home  in  Indiana  by  do- 
nations from  the  wealthy.  I  have  a  good  por- 
tion toward  it  already  but  not  enough.  Please 
slip  a  five  or  a  one  dollar  bill  in  an  envelope 
and  send  it  to  me,  and  see  if  you  ever  miss  it 

(3)  It  was  a  very  great  pleasure  to  see  you 
once  more  and  to  know  of  God's  kindly  dealings 


180  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

with  you.  P.  S.  section  3  above  is  not  quite 
true  to  fact  (he  had  not  seen  her  or  heard  from 
her)  but  I  trust  you  are  to  be  a  co-laborer  and 
so  I  send  this  on  with  a  photograph  of  myself 
(signed  Yours  by  Grace  with  an  admirable 
statement  about  his  college) 

Mendicancy  wants  something  for  nothing;  in- 
dulges the  gambling  instinct,  trapping  instinct,  get- 
rich-quick  Wallingford  instinct;  dotes  on  martyr- 
dom and  self  pity;  believes  the  world  owes  it  a  liv- 
ing; flatters  the  donor's  sense  of  superiority;  emits 
flattery  as  snakes  spit  slime;  revels  in  the  game  of 
"  nothing  ventured,  nothing  gained  " ;  and  believes 
all  is  fair  in  love,  war  and  raising  money. 

The  way  to  eliminate  mendicancy  is  not  to  throw 
its  letters  in  the  waste  basket  unanswered,  but  to 
bare  its  soul,  expose  it,  advertise  it,  make  it  under- 
stood, deny  it  concealment.  It  is  just  as  unintelli- 
gent and  anti-social  to  fail  to  report  mendicancy  as 
to  fail  to  report  typhoid  fever  or  whooping  cough. 

After  writing  "  altruistic  appeals "  for  many 
years,  and  after  reading  thousands  of  requests  for 
money  from  all  kinds  of  people  and  for  all  kinds  of 
purposes,  I  am  struck  with  the  similarity  between 
individual  mendicancy  and  organized  mendicancy. 
In  fact,  I  am  ready  to  believe  that  we  shall  never 
get  rid  of  the  mendicant  individual  so  long  as  we 
approve  the  mendicant  attitude  of  rich  churches, 
charities  and  colleges.  Until  these  large  and  re- 
spectable agencies  outgrow  the  posture  and  strate- 


THE  SOUL  OF  MENDICANCY         181 

gics    of   mendicants,    individual    mendicancy    will    be 
tolerated  and  vagrant  giving  will  continue. 

Organized  mendicancy  easily  becomes  more  objec- 
tionable than  individual  mendicancy  because  it  is 
apt  to  be  more  insistent,  more  subtle  and  more  im- 
portunate. It  is  vastly  easier  to  turn  away  from 
the  individual  beggar  on  the  street  or  to  throw  an 
individual  begging  letter  into  the  waste  basket  than 
to  refuse  a  church  congregation  or  a  board  of  di- 
rectors which  notifies  you  of  its  intention  to  pursue 
you  —  in  your  mail,  at  your  office,  at  dinner  parties 
and  operas,  on  steamboats  —  until  you  have  made 
a  contribution. 

Just  as  the  country  tramp  is  an  expert  in  wheed- 
ling the  housewife  and  in  calming  ferocious  dogs, 
so  the  mendicant  —  individual  or  organized  — 
comes  to  be  an  expert  in  guessing  at  the  soft  spots 
in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  rich  men  and  women. 
He  learns  when  Mr.  A.'s  little  girl  has  a  birthday 
and,  timing  his  letter  so  that  it  will  arrive  on  that 
particular  day,  writes  about  his  own  little  girl,  bed- 
ridden who  is  sunshine  itself;  or  about  the  gray  lit- 
tle lives  only  waiting  a  chance  to  go  to  this  hos- 
pital. Mr.  A.  is  so  struck  with  the  coincidence  and 
so  determined  to  have  his  baby's  birthday  unmarred 
by  one  unhappy  thought,  that  he  sends  a  check  to  — 
a  drunken  gambler  or  an  institution  with  a  surplus. 

After  the  newspapers  have  announced  that  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  B.  have  bought  three  automobiles  at  the 
great   show,   an   appeal   comes   from   a   professional 


182  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

begging  letter  writer.  He  contrasts  their  lavish- 
ness  with  his  own  distress  or  this  neighborhood's 
abject  poverty  and  viciousness  and  says  enough 
about  cold,  dead,  infinite  injustice  or  poverty's  help- 
lessness and  enough  about  anarchy  or  the  rising  tide 
of  socialism  to  frighten  Mr.  B.  into  a  generous  gift. 

The  insidiousness  of  the  mendicant  phrase  few 
realize  who  have  not  written  or  read  it  and  re- 
sponded to  it.  I  can  recommend  this  science  to  art 
students  or  teachers  of  psychology  or  to  politicians, 
ministers  and  educators  wishing  to  locate  the  sus- 
ceptibilities of  human  hearts  and  human  intelligence. 

Beggars,  like  gamblers,  are  themselves  supersti- 
tious and  address  both  the  victim  and  exploiter  of 
superstition.  Hundreds  write  Mrs.  Harriman  that 
they  know  you  are  overwhelmed  with  letters,  but 
they  are  going  to  take  the  chance  of  this  letter 
reaching  you  and  appealing  to  your  heart.  No 
writers  employ  these  phrases  more  than  those  who 
are  seeking  funds  for  religious  and  uplift  work. 

Just  as  the  beggar  on  the  street  offers  to  show 
his  wound,  the  letter  writer  draws  upon  his  vocabu- 
lary of  woe.  Little  family  incidents  —  real,  bor- 
rowed, conventional  and  imaginary  —  are  quoted,  its 
privations,  its  sacrifices,  its  love.  Professional  pho- 
tographers are  commandeered  into  service  and  fur- 
nish "  made  up  "  photographs  to  illustrate  at  least 
approximately  the  progressively  harrowing  words 
made  necessary  by  competition  among  appealers. 

The    fact    that    trustees    give    time    and    thought 


No. 


B58 


Why  not  give  him  the  one  thing, 

that  can  be  safely  given  him — Education  ? 


The  frame  for  this  "model"  is  taken  from  one  organization's  1911  appeal. 
The  photograph  is  an  oval  converted  from  a  squ  ire  cut  loaned  to  us  by  the 
N.  Y.  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  which  had  it  several 
years  before.  The  original  was  "posed"  by  commercial  photographers. 
"  Ethical  enough,"  but  have  givers  the  right  to  know  whether  such  appeals 
without  words  come  from  work  or  from  "  stock  "  ? 


AN    APPEALERS'  MODEL" 


THE  SOUL  OF  MENDICANCY         183 

which  involve  greater  sacrifice  than  the  money  which 
they  request  is  an  argument  for  abandoning,  not 
continuing,  mendicant  words  and  postures.  Mendi- 
cancy is  poor  soil  in  which  to  plant  higher  educa- 
tion, religion  and  philanthropy.  Better  far  the  truc- 
ulent  attitude  of  the  college  president  who  writes, 
/  do  not  want  your  support  without  your  heart,  but 
if  you  have  not  the  vision  to  see  tlds  opportunity, 
then  keep  your  money. 

Three  reasons  why  mendicancy's  tableaux  vivants 
or  ecrits  by  mail  are  so  profitable  are  suggested  re- 
peatedly by  our  letters:  (1)  We  have  been  draw- 
ing fine  but  illogical  lines  between  the  individual 
mendicant  and  the  organized  mendicant,  between  the 
man  who  asks  for  himself  and  his  family  and  the 
trustees  who  ask  for  themselves  and  their  church, 
their  college,  their  charitable  society.  //  it  is  right 
to  ask  for  help  to  save  other  people's  children  why 
is  it  wrong  to  ask  for  my  own?  (2)  Many  persons 
of  wealth  and  many  persons  of  small  means  snap  at 
a  chance  to  get  $10  worth  of  satisfaction  out  of  a 
dollar  gift;  (3)  Wealth  has  been  compelling  need 
to  seek  help  where  wealth  should  seek  need. 


Of  all  the  men  assisted  during  the  year,  paroles  and  discharged  prisoners, 
amounting  to  more  than  1,100,  we  do  not  know  of  ten  who  have  returned  to 
prison,  which  is  Icse  than  one  per  cent      Can  you  help  us  In  this  great  work? 

Caring  tor  these  men  Is  an  obligation  devolving  upon  every  citizen. 
The  Prisoners'  Aid  Association  Is  undertaking  the  problem  In  an  Intelligent 
manner.  Are  you  willing  to  do  your  part?  It  so.  please  send  a  contribution 
at  once.     Make  check  payable  to 


The  Endowment  Dream 

The  dream  of  every  private  benevolent  agency  is 
to  secure  an  endowment.  Letter  after  letter  asks 
that  the  trustees  may  be  relieved  of  the  anxiety  and 
responsibility  of  raising  money.  Appealers  seek 
endowments  by  the  same  law  of  nature  which  makes 
water  seek  a  level  and  tempts  people  to  spoil  their 
parks  by  making  short  cuts  over  the  lawns. 

It  is  hard  work  to  raise  money.  Few  love  hard 
work  that  they  have  to  do.  The  only  hard  work 
that  everybody  likes  is  the  kind  that  can  be  taken 
up  and  put  down  at  will. 

There  is  nothing  more  wasteful  than  for  energy 
to  be  spent  in  begging  for  money  when  energy  is 
needed  to  do  good  work.  As  Mr.  Rockefeller  says, 
"  We  cannot  afford  to  have  great  souls  capable  of 
doing  most  effective  work  slaving  to  raise  the  money ; 
that  should  be  a  business  man's  task."  The  only 
justification  for  permitting  uplift  work  to  beg  for 
an  existence  when  rich  men  and  women  could, 
through  endowment,  relieve  them  of  all  anxiety  and 
stop  the  diversion  of  energy  from  work  to  talk,  is 
that  there  is  something  about  unguarded  or  "  un- 
denaturized "  endowments  which  inhibits  imagina- 
tion, teachability  and  desire  to  work. 

Just  what  work  and  how  much  of  it  can  safely  be 
endowed,  and  just  what  restrictions,  if  any,  may  be 

184 


THE  ENDOWMENT  DREAM  185 

attached  to  endowments  to  prevent  them  from  in- 
hibiting energy,  will  never  be  known  until  there  has 
been  a  free  discussion  of  giving. 

There  is  a  well  grounded  belief  among  charitable 
and  religious  workers  that  it  is  legitimate  and  hon- 
orable to  be  forever  creating  deficits.  John  B. 
Gough  used  to  tell  of  a  farmer  who  tried  to  get  his 
farm  hands  to  work  on  Sunday  by  quoting  certain 
biblical  phrases  about  helping  one's  brother  out  of 
trouble,  until  one  farm  hand  replied  that  he  didn't 
understand  the  Bible's  injunction  to  include  in- 
stances where  a  man  pushed  his  brother  into  trouble 
for  six  days  preceding  Sunday.  Is  the  time  com- 
ing when  the  public  will  declare  emphatically  that 
it  will  not  be  party  to  the  creation  of  deficits  and  to 
urgency  appeals  such  as  that  of  an  old  folks'  home 
which  has  this  great  home  big  enough  to  care  for 
£00,  and  it  is  paid  for,  but  we  have  no  way  of  sup- 
port? There  are  80  in  the  house  at  present  and 
we  have  more  than  300  applications  in.  This  is  the 
same  home  which  offered  to  sell  for  perpetuity  the 
privilege  of  filling  a  room  for  $200  a  year,  when  it 
costs  $275  per  individual  and  might  cost  $550  for 
the  room. 

No  city  is  without  its  "  Ransom's  Folly  "  where 
some  large  institution  is  running  at  half  its  capacity 
because  the  buildings  have  been  erected  without  pro- 
vision to  use  them.  Instead  of  putting  energy  into 
raising  funds  for  current  expenses,  the  managers 
put   it  into   appeals  for  endowment.     The  attitude 


186  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

of  rich  men  toward  all  giving  changes  when  they 
regard  relief  of  the  poor  as  their  own  problem  and 
not  the  problem  of  some  appealing  agency.  The 
taxpayers  of  New  York  ought  not  to  feel  when  they 
give  to  anti-tuberculosis  work  that  they  are  benevo- 
lently helping  along  the  trustees  of  that  work. 
Public  spirited  citizens  who  support  municipal  re- 
search may  not,  without  injuring  the  work,  assume  a 
patronizing  indulgent  attitude  toward  those  who  ap- 
peal for  municipal  research.  People  do  not  endow 
the  Plaza  Hotel,  but  it  would  have  to  be  endowed  if 
rich  men  and  women  felt  that  they  were  conferring 
a  favor  when  they  go  there.  No  railroad  in  the 
country  could  survive  ten  years  of  benevolent  pat- 
ronizing. 

So  long  as  we  have  endowments  several  rules 
should  be  observed  by  those  responsible  for  adminis- 
tering them: 


The  amount  of  endowment  in  hand  should  be 
annually  reported,  with  a  clear  statement  of 
the  purposes  and  restrictions  of  each  dis- 
tinct part  of  the  total  endowment 

Use  made  of  the  total  endowment  and  each 
part  of  it  should  be  clearly  reported  each 
year  in  such  detail  as  to  show  efficiency  of 
use  as  well  as  purpose 

An  annual  outside  independent  audit  should 
be  made  —  and  results  published  —  of  all 
endowment  receipts  and  endowment  expendi- 
tures showing  the  nature  of  investments, 
the  amount  of  interest  yielded,  extent  and 


RULES  FOR  ENDOWMENTS  187 

purposes  for  which  income  or  capital  is  con- 
sumed, etc? 

4.  If  it  costs  the  income  on  $20,000  a  year  to 

maintain  a  hospital  bed,  givers  should  not 
be  told  that  they  can  "  endow "  that  bed 
for  $5,000 

5.  When  endowments  exceed  the  amounts  needed 

that  fact  should  be  advertised  to  prospective 
givers  and  to  all  others  who  may  know  of 
needs  not  met  of  the  kind  for  which  the  en- 
dowment was  intended 

6.  Endowments  should  be  used  for  special  pur- 

poses, experiments,  and  extensions  of  work 
—  or  especially  for  the  minimum  funds  nec- 
essary to  guarantying  efficient  managing 
and  appealing  —  so  as  to  encourage,  not  in- 
hibit current  giving  for  current  maintenance 

7.  Endowments   should   be   refused   when   so  re- 

stricted as  to  weaken  the  appealing  power, 
increase  the  burden  or  paralyze  initiative 

8.  "  Endowment    instruction "    should    be    given 

through  annual  reports,  letters,  conferences, 
speeches  and  frank  discussion  at  all  times 
of  the  principles  and  methods  of  efficient 
endowing 

9.  How  different  additions  to  endowments  would 

add  to  service  should  be  reported 

10.  Agencies    should   print    forms    of   bequest    in 

their  annual  reports  which  will  suggest  dif- 
ferent forms  for  permanent  funds,  current 
expense  funds  and  special  purposes 

11.  For  all  institutions  of  a  class  and  for  all  in- 

stitutions of  all  classes  a  list  of  all  endow- 
ments should  be  published  annually  by  what- 
ever public  or  private  agency  most  nearly 
approximates  a  local  clearing  house 


188  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

12.  As  a  protection  to  society,  to  philanthropic 
and  educational  agencies  and  to  donors, 
state  boards  of  charities  should  be  given 
power  by  statute  to  require  and  to  publish 
a  detailed  explanation  of  the  status  of  all 
private  endowment  funds,  other  than  for  col- 
leges, i.e.,  receipts,  disbursements,  extent 
and  purposes  for  which  income  or  capital  is 
consumed,  etc;  state  boards  of  education 
should  be  given  similar  powers  and  duties 
with  respect  to  strictly  institutional-educa- 
tional endowments 


MR.   R.  A.   BOOTH 

Who  Offers  $100,000  Towards  Endowment 


P 


MR. 

Who  Offers  $  Towards  Endowment 


THE  DEAD  HAND  189 

The  Dead  Hand  and  the  Deadening  Live  Hand 

The  "  dead  hand  "  has  a  bad  reputation  among 
trustees.  Books  have  been  written  to  show  how  giv- 
ers have  been  so  unreasonable  as  to  insist  that  money 
shall  be  spent  in  doing  things  that  are  not  needed 
or  in  obsolete  ways.  It  is  considered  unfortunate, 
for  example,  that  Girard  College  in  Philadelphia 
will  never  be  able  to  move  from  its  present  quarters 
and  will  probably  never  be  able,  within  the  limits  of 
its  present  quarters,  to  spend  efficiently  the  income 
to  which  it  is  entitled.  It  will  never  be  able  to  do 
away  with  the  embargo  on  clergymen,  no  one  of 
whom  may  enter  its  grounds,  or  with  the  wall  around 
the  college,  although  some  legal  minds  have  sug- 
gested sinking  it  below  the  level  of  the  street.  Like- 
wise, the  dead  hand  has  piled  up  income  so  fast  for 
the  Sailors'  Snug  Harbor  that  even  by  spending 
money  like  "  a  drunken  sailor  "  it  could  not  spend 
its  income  while  obeying  the  dead  man's  behests. 

Without  defending  the  dead  hand  I  want  to  recall 
two  facts:  (1)  that  what  is  really  objected  to  is 
not  the  deadness  of  the  hand,  but  the  deadening  ef- 
fect upon  trustee,  beneficiary  and  other  donors ;  (2) 
that  a  deadening  effect  is  just  as  deadening  from  a 
live  hand  as  from  a  dead  hand.  There  is  no  kind 
of  deadening  that  deadens  more  fatally  than  the 
sympathetic  live  hand  which  from  misinformation 
and  lack  of  efficiency  standards  invites  insincerity, 
evasion,  waste,  incompetence  and  incompleteness  in 


190  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

the  use  of  its  gifts.     Energy  can  be  deadened  by 
riches  and  freedom,  as  well  as  by  restrictions. 

The  problems  that  testators  and  beneficiaries  must 
face  or  evade  when  given  instructions  or  commissions 
by  donors  are  indicated  by  the  following  random 
questions  which  I  asked  when  invited  to  outline  sug- 
gestions for  making  "  this  fund  (to  send  50 
men  and  women  each  year  to  college)  really  accom- 
plish something  worth  while." 

Is  the  fund  cumulative;  that  is,  must  $15,000  be 
set  aside  year  by  year,  and  if  only  $10,000 
is  spent  first  year  will  the  other  $5,000  go  for- 
ward to  the  second  year? 

Is  it  to  last  forever? 

Has  any  provision  been  made  (a)  for  keeping 
track  of  the  results?  (b)  for  recording  the 
qualifications?  (c)  for  making  the  selections 
impersonal? 

Would  the  four  trustees  consider  writing  a  circu- 
lar letter  to  the  principal  college  presidents, 
city  superintendents  of  school,  high  school  and 
normal  principals,  heads  of  other  professional 
and  technical  schools  west  of  the  Mississippi 
inviting  suggestions  as  to  using  the  fund? 

Are  boys  and  girls,  men  and  women  east  of  the 
Mississippi  eligible  in  institutions  west  of  the 
Mississippi? 

Is  it  compatible  with  the  purpose  of  the  fund  to 
have  it  a  loan  fund  so  far  as  possible  using  the 
returns  for  increasing  the  number  of  possible 
stipends  ? 

Is  it  available  for  giving  field  training  or  field 
experience  to  men  and  women  who  have  gradu- 


ENDOWMENT  QUESTIONS  191 

ated  in  special  lines,  i.e.,  could  a  graduate  of  a 
college  be  given  a  year's  experience  in  study  of 
school  administration?  Could  a  doctor  be  given 
a  year's  experience  in  field  study  of  health  man- 
agement? 

Could  a  successful  teacher  be  given  a  fund  for 
visiting  public  schools  in  other  cities? 

Could  a  college  instructor  be  given  a  fund  for 
studying  public  schools,  normals,  technical 
schools,  etc? 

Could  it  be  used  for  paying  the  expenses  of  a 
state  superintendent  of  education,  otherwise 
without  funds,  who  wanted  to  study  conditions 
where  better  managed  than  in  his  own  state? 

Is  the  fund  available  for  supplementing  students' 
funds  so  that  one  having,  say  $300,  could  be 
given  the  other  hundred  necessary  to  send  her 
to  a  college,  or  must  the  scholarship  in  each 
case  provide  for  all  the  expense  of  instruction? 

Will  the  aim  of  the  trustees  be  to  express  personal 
interest  in  beneficiaries  or  to  make  the  fund  go 
as  far  as  possible? 

Will  it  be  compatible  with  their  purpose  to  help 
individuals  in  the  way  that  will  help  whole  com- 
munities ? 

Would  the  trustees  welcome  a  plan  that  would 
make  the  fund  and  its  founder  known  nationally? 

Is  any  part  of  the  fund  or  of  any  other  fund 
available  for  paying  the  expenses  of  sifting  ap- 
plications, corresponding  with  college  presi- 
dents, etc? 

Would  it  be  compatible  to  "  bunch  their  hits/' 
taking  up  one  section  after  another,  i.e.,  give 
one  year's  scholarship  to  Colorado,  the  next  to 
Washington,    the   next    to   Wisconsin,   etc:   or 


192  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

give  one  year's  scholarship  to  normal  schools, 
the  next  to  high  schools,  the  next  toward  com- 
pleting the  sixth  grade,  etc? 

Instead  of  spending  several  years'  stipends  on  one 
person,  would  it  be  desirable  to  be  in  such 
touch  with  principals  and  superintendents,  etc, 
that  the  fund  for  an  experimental  period  should 
at  least  go  to  men  and  women,  boys  or  girls 
disappointed  toward  the  end  of  their  school 
work  or  otherwise  compelled  to  drop  out? 

Would  a  central  office  be  furnished  from  which 
the  work  could  be  managed? 

Has  any  effort  been  made  to  learn  the  experience 
of  various  student  funds, —  gift  funds,  loan 
funds,  etc,  that  have  already  been  tried? 

Is  the  deed  of  gift  broad  enough  so  that  starting 
work  for  physical  examination  of  children  be- 
fore taking  work  certificates,  vocational  guid- 
ance, etc,  might  come  under  it? 

For  the  School  Children  of 

Without  relieving  taxpayers  of  already  assumed  duties  willmakers  and 
other  donors  could  help  our  schools  through  gifts  of  from  $100  to  $250,000 
as  follows: 

1.    Lump  sums 


2.  Annual  instalments^ 

3.  Work  of  nation-wide  value 

■■„- —Supt. 

A    RETURN    POST    CARD 


Making  Gifts  Dependent  Upon  Other  Gifts 

Innumerable  verbal  appeals  and  letters  have  asked 
Mrs.  Harriman's  help  on  the  principal  ground  that 
someone  else  has  offered  $25,000,  $50,000  or  $100,- 
000  provided  two  or  10  times  as  much  is  secured 
from  others  by  a  given  date. 

One  rich  man  in  New  York  says  he  cannot  under- 
stand a  man  whose  interest  in  good  work  is  limited 
to  someone  else's  giving.  He  concedes  that  condi- 
tional gifts  stimulate  appealing;  that  is  why  he  pro- 
tests. A  college  president  has  just  completed  one 
fund  of  $600,000  without  raising  any  appreciable 
portion  of  it  from  those  who  know  his  college.  He 
vonfided  to  me  that  he  is  about  to  start  another 
$600,000  hunt.  I  say  hunt  because  the  use  of  con- 
ditional gifts  often  takes  on  the  aspect  of  a  chase, — 
of  starting  from  interest  not  in  the  cause  but  in 
making  other  rich  men  and  women  give  money. 
These  other  rich  men  and  women  retaliate  in  kind 
and  are  willing  to  spend  $5,000  or  $50,000  apiece  in 
order  to  compel  payment  of  the  conditional  gift. 

College  presidents  might  say,  "  Here  are  2,000 
young  men  and  women  who  have  no  first-class  col- 
lege facilities  near  by.  The  neighborhood  has  given 
every  dollar  it  can  afford  to  give.  In  a  generation 
it  will  be  able  to  raise  the  money  needed  now,  but  in 
the   meantime   a   generation   of  prospective   college 

193 


194  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

students  must  go  without  opportunity.  Will  you 
do  something  for  this  generation  of  young  men  and 
women?  "  What  they  too  often  say  is,  u  Mr.  ABC 
has  offered  $100,000  on  condition  that  we  raise  a 
total  of  $600,000  by  July  1st.  It  is  now  June  25th 
and  we  lack  only  $150,000.  We  believe  if  you  will 
give  $10,000  it  wiU  bring  heart  to  our  movement 
and  stimulate  others  so  that  we  may  earn  this 
princely  gift  to  the  cause  of  education." 

Unquestionably,  however,  Mr.  Rockefeller's  con- 
ditional gifts  to  colleges  and  charitable  institutions 
have  forced  millions  in  unwilling  gifts  from  other 
rich  men  and  women.  Just  as  unquestionably  they 
have  stimulated  appealers,  given  activity  to  hun- 
dreds of  institutions  which  were  formerly  content 
with  deficits  of  program  and  funds,  and  increased 
many  fold  the  country's  output  for  education  and 
uplift.  Similarly,  Mr.  Carnegie's  conditional  gifts 
have  hurried  the  building  and  insured  the  mainte- 
nance of  scores  of  public  libraries. 

Imposing  Conditions  Upon  the  Use  of  Gifts 

In  spite  of  all  the  well  founded  objections  based 
upon  sad  practice  and  sound  theory  to  gifts  "  with 
strings  to  them,"  there  is  nevertheless  safety  in 
strings.  Because  many  half  dead  or  over-  systema- 
tized agencies  exhibit  more  red  tape  than  intelli- 
gence is  no  argument  against  system.  Because 
many  donors  impose  unreasonable  conditions  upon 
"  donees  "  is  no  argument  against  reasonable  con- 


CONDITIONAL  GIVING  195 

ditions.  Because  Georgia  instructed  her  delegates 
to  the  Democratic  national  convention  of  1912  to 
vote,  "  until  his  election  is  secured,"  for  a  candidate 
whose  nomination  was  found  impossible  is  no  ar- 
gument against  instructing  delegates  at  primaries 
and  arming  them  with  discretion.  String  is  used  to 
make  life  lines  as  well  as  tethers. 

Contract  and  credit  presume  conditions  made  in 
advance  in  full  view  of  both  parties  and  in  the  equal 
interest  of  both  parties.  If  the  prospective  donor 
imposes  conditions  which  a  private  agency  does  not 
wish  to  accept,  that  agency  is  entirely  free  to  refuse 
the  donation.  If  the  agency  does  not  want  to  do 
what  the  donor  wishes,  it  should  be  frank  enough 
to  tell  him  before  he  makes  his  gift  and  thus  permit 
him  to  give  his  money  where  it  is  wanted,  or  else  to 
change  his  mind  and  give  it  under  terms  acceptable 
to  the  recipient.  No  donor  can  fail  to  respect  an 
agency  that  frankly  says  his  terms  are  too  onerous. 

A  very  considerable  gift  was  once  nearly  lost 
because  the  representative  of  a  charitable  agency 
flatly  refused  to  comply  with  one  or  two  of  the 
donor's  conditions.  The  donor  said,  "  You  don't 
mean  to  say  you  would  refuse  a  property  worth 
$500,000?"  The  agency  replied,  "We  must  on 
your  conditions  which  prevent  our  accomplishing 
with  it  either  what  your  proposed  beneficiaries  need 
or  what  you  yourself  really  want."  As  a  result  of 
the  flat,  cold,  almost  cruel  frankness,  the  ultimate 
gift  was  three  times  the  amount  that  the  donor  orig- 


196  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

in  ally  had  in  mind,  and  when  it  came  it  was  on  the 
distinct  understanding  that  after  ten  years  the 
money  could  be  used  for  an  entirely  different  set  of 
beneficiaries  should  the  present  need  have  disap- 
peared or  been  otherwise  provided  for. 

A  large  farm,  well  stocked  and  well  provided  with 
horses,  orchards,  running  water,  etc,  was  refused 
by  a  fresh  air  agency  on  the  ground  that  cost  of 
transportation  would  be  too  heavy.  It  was  later 
given  —  suitably  —  for  industrial  and  agricultural 
instruction.  A  woman  willing  to  erect  a  $400,000 
"  working  girls'  home "  was  told,  after  investiga- 
tion, that  the  particular  class  of  girls  whom  she 
aimed  to  help  would  probably  not  use  the  proposed 
home.  An  agency  recently  relinquished  properties 
started  for  instruction  of  mothers  in  care  of  babies 
on  the  ground  that  it  had  accomplished  its  mission, 
namely,  to  secure  city  wide  milk  stations  and  house 
to  house  instruction  of  mothers  by  the  department  of 
health;  the  site  is  now  fittingly  used  for  a  vacation 
school  garden.  If  agencies  would  advertise  offers 
which  they  have  rejected,  with  their  reasons,  donors 
would  be  infinitely  less  apt  to  will  or  give  money 
in  1913  for  subsidizing  methods  that  became  obsolete 
in  1850  or  even  in  1900. 

Because  unconditional  giving  is  so  often  irre- 
sponsible and  disappointed  giving,  it  behooves  benev- 
olent agencies  to  work  out  specifications  for  givers 
similar  to  those  which  are  found  indispensable  be- 
tween  purchaser   and  seller.     Properly   conditioned 


CONDITIONAL  GIVING  197 

gifts  are  a  tremendous  help.  It  is  quite  as  impor- 
tant that  the  giver  shall  stimulate  those  who  receive 
his  money  after  it  is  given  to  them,  as  that  he  shall 
stimulate  them  at  the  appealing  stage  to  interest 
other  givers. 

To  borrow  an  example  from  municipal  budgets: 
We  are  beginning  to  hear  in  American  cities,  notably 
in  New  York,  protests  against  the  segregated, 
classified  budget  on  the  ground  that  it  "  ties  the 
hands  of  the  administrative  officer."  We  are  told 
not  merely  by  politicians,  but  by  civic  agencies, — 
"  Leave  us  room  to  move ;  do  not  tie  our  hands ;  vote 
us  the  money  and  then  hold  us  responsible  for  spend- 
ing it  properly."  The  trouble  with  this  advice, 
whether  in  private  benevolence  or  in  public  budget 
making,  is  that  the  donor  loses  his  position  of  in- 
fluence the  minute  he  has  turned  over  the  money. 
Experience  proves  that  it  is  practically  —  though 
not  theoretically  —  impossible,  with  the  machinery 
which  we  have  as  yet  evolved,  to  hold  recipients  re- 
sponsible for  spending  money  according  to  their 
ante-budget  demand,  unless  the  purposes  for  which 
it  is  to  be  spent  are  defined  and  restricted  in  ad- 
vance, subject  always  to  change  upon  evidence  that 
change  is  desirable.  In  1911  New  York  City  re- 
ceived back  into  its  general  fund  nearly  $3,000,000 
which,  had  its  spending  not  been  conditioned  in  ad- 
vance, would  have  gone  to  increasing  salaries  and 
taking  on  new  work  never  contemplated  when  the 
funds  were  given. 


198  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Colleges  and  charitable  institutions  urge  an  addi- 
tional argument  against  conditional  gifts,  i.e.,  that 
public  spirited  men  and  women  are  giving  their  time 
in  spending  the  money;  that  it  should  be  taken  for 
granted  that  they  will  spend  the  money  wisely ;  that 
their  judgment  is  better  than  the  donor's.  The 
point  missed  is  that  the  judgment  of  trustees  made 
in  an  emergency,  when  they  are  trying  to  get  out 
of  trouble,  is  not  the  same  and  not  so  clear  as  their 
judgment  made  in  advance  of  a  gift,  after  full  dis- 
cussion with  the  donor  or  stated  in  printed  sugges- 
tion and  advice  to  will  makers. 

An  entirely  unconditional  large  gift  means,  as  a 
rule,  an  uninformed  if  not  an  unthinking  donor.  At 
least  it  is  true  that  we  may  bring  about  a  situation 
where  conditional  giving  will  mean  an  informed  and 
thinking  donor.  With  $100,000  to  spend,  gifts 
made  on  condition  to  the  philanthropies  of  New 
York  City  could  make  over  the  manner  of  adminis- 
tering some  $15,000,000  a  year,  while  appreciably 
influencing  at  the  same  time  the  way  in  which  the 
city  spends  $200,000,000  a  year.  This  has  been 
conclusively  proved  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for 
the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  whose  conditions  im- 
posed before  voting  pensions  have  saved  more  to  col- 
leges by  increasing  their  efficiency  than  the  Carne- 
gie Fund  has  given  away  in  pensions.  Letters  of  in- 
quiry from  certain  men  and  women  in  New  York  ad- 
dressed to  benevolent  agencies  merely  asking  ques- 
tions as  to  what  they  want  to  do  next,  would  ac- 


CONDITIONAL  GIVING  199 

toiiiplish  vast  results  without  any  gifts;  but  natu- 
rally no  one  would  wish  to  catechise  agencies  without 
appropriating  some  money  to  justify  the  question 
and  to  pay  them  for  their  trouble. 

To  illustrate:  In  February,  1911,  the  New  York 
Milk  Committee  asked  Mrs.  Harriman  for  a  gift 
toward  its  milk  stations.  After  bringing  out  their 
plan  in  detail,  Mrs.  Harriman  intimated  that  she 
would  be  willing  to  defray  their  administration  ex- 
pense, $7,000,  on  three  conditions : 

1.  That  the  milk  stations  to  be  supported  by 
the  Milk  Committee  from  private  funds  and  the 
stations  supported  by  the  city  should  decide  to 
keep  similar  adequate  records  of  their  work  so 
that  the  efforts  and  results  of  each  and  all 
should  be  comparable  and  useful  to  support  an 
appeal  the  following  autumn  for  the  city's  tak- 
ing over  this  milk  station  work 

2.  That  the  error  of  the  preceding  summer 
should  not  be  repeated  when,  at  the  height  of 
the  infant  mortality,  neither  the  Milk  Commit- 
tee nor  the  health  department  had  taken  steps 
to  persuade  the  newspapers  to  stop  telling  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  mothers  that  of  course 
their  babies  must  die  because  the  weather  was 
torrid,  and  to  begin  showing  how  babies  could  ' 
be  saved  by  their  own  mothers  in  spite  of  the 
weather 

3.  That  the  Milk  Committee  should  obtain  re- 
lief from  the  already  established  relief  agencies 
instead  of  trying  to  build  up  its  own  competing 
relief  funds,  a  condition  also  imposed  by  Mr. 
Rockefeller 


200  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

These  three  conditions  were  accepted  with  results 
which  gave  New  York  City  a  continuous  educational 
campaign  such  as  no  city  had  ever  seen  before;  55 
milk  stations  were  voted  to  the  health  department 
by  the  board  of  estimate  in  the  fall  for  the  summer 
of  1912;  and  the  Milk  Committee,  now  relieved  of 
its  milk  stations,  has  assumed  the  burden  of  making 
educational  use  of  the  health  department's  milk  sta- 
tions and  visiting  nurses,  studying  and  teaching  ex- 
pectant mothers  and  promulgating  here  and  else- 
where proper  milk  standards. 

Before  he  gives  his  money  a  donor  stimulates  ver- 
satility, imagination  and  definiteness  on  the  part  of 

OUR  DESIRES  AND  AN  c^lPPEAL,* 

We  ask  our  friends  to  contribute  in  proportion  to  their  means  and  as  their 
desires  dictate.  Some  may  prefer  to  make  annual  contributions  covering  a 
period  of  years.  To  one  and  all  we  suggest  that  the  method,  manner,  con- 
ditions, restrictions,  suggestions  and  indications  of  any  gift  will  meet  with., 
hearty  co-operation  upon  our  part. 

the  would-be  recipient.  After  he  gives  it,  his  ques- 
tions stimulate  resentment  and  sarcasm.  I  wrote  a 
couple  of  days  ago  to  a  gentleman  who  had  been 
asked  to  underwrite  a  $50,000  budget :  "  May  I 
suggest  that  the  best  way  to  help  this  movement 
would  be  to  delay  your  gift  until  after  those  in 
charge  have  worked  out  for  themselves  and  for  you 
a  definite  program  for  spending  this  $50,000?  " 

Unconditional  gifts  hamper  when  they  build  up 
sums  which  convey  to  the  public  an  entirely  errone- 
ous impression  of  the  recipient's  strength.     If  un- 


ARE   YOU  WARNING   MOTHERS  JN  TIME? 


A  STORY 

A  story  I'm  showing 
Of  mother  not  knowing 
And  now  my  story's  begun 


I'll  tell  you  another 
Of  lessons  to  mother 

And  now  my  story  is  done 


N.  V.  Milk  Commute* 


DOES  YOUR  HEALTH   DEPARTMENT  "SWAT 
THROUGH   EDUCATION? 


FLIES 


Send  for  the  Fly  poster  issued  by  the  Chicago  department  of  health,  with 
border  illustration  adopted  from  Florida  state  board  of  health  poster. 

This  is  typhoid  time. 

Typhoid  time  is  also  fly  time. 

Flies  are  filthy — they  may  be  filthy  with  typhoid  filth 

Now's  the  time  to  fight  the  flies — dispose  of  that  typhoid  danger 

Get  an  extra  supply  of  swatters — let  no  filthy  fly  escape. 

Better  spend  a  little  time  each  day  swatting  flies  than  to  spend  five  weeks  in 
bed  with  typhoid. 

Get  busy. — Chicago  Health  Department  Bulletin. 


FROM   TWO  PUBLICITY  POST  CARDS 


USES  OF  CONDITIONAL  GIFTS        201 

restricted  thousands  are  available,  what  right  has  a 
relief  agency  to  let  people  die  for  want  of  current 
gifts?  Yet  what  mismanagement  to  consume  lega- 
cies or  windfalls  for  current  expenses  beyond  actual 
needs  or  when  new  buildings  are  needed!  To  say 
that  income  only  shall  be  used  or  income  plus  one 
tenth  or  one  fifteenth  or  one  hundredth  the  capital, 
will  prevent  either  criticism  of  an  agency  for  arbi- 
trarily refusing  to  use  unrestricted  gifts  or  tempta- 
tion to  relax  and  congeal  from  luxury. 

The  present  difficulties  with  conditional  gifts  are 
due  to  the  failure  of  private  benevolence  to  formu- 
late and  publish  standards  that  will  serve  the  public 
and  the  donor  without  restricting  the  generous  hand. 
One  frank  condition  would  greatly  help  if  strictly 
enforced, —  that  the  recipient  shall  report  each  year 
just  what  it  has  done,  not  only  with  otherwise  un- 
conditional bequests  or  gifts,  but  with  conditioned 
gifts.  This  was  voluntarily  done  by  the  New  York 
Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor, 
which  reported  as  follows  in  1910  (not  repeated  in 
1911): 

1905  —  William  and  Rosina  Jervis  Fund; 
Income  $2,600;  provided  800  families  with  coal 
during  the  six  coldest  weeks  of  winter 

1906  —  James  C.  Carter  Fund:  Income 
$500;  provided  pure  milk  during  the  summer 
for  fifty  families  with  babies  or  delicate  chil- 
dren. (Friends  of  the  donor  here  find  frankly 
written  that  this  association  in  1910  used  the 
fund  for  an  entirely  different  purpose  from  that 


202  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

for  which  it  restricted  it  in  1906,  e.g.,  to  be  used 
in  promoting  some  distinctive  civic  effort 
such  as  proper  administration  of  public 
baths  or  adequate  milk  inspection) 

1909  —  James  G.  Brown  in  Memoriam  Fund: 
For  fresh  air  work;  income  $48.75;  sufficed  to 
keep  man  and  wife  both  in  danger  of  breaking 
down  four  weeks  in  the  country 

Donors  have  no  more  right  to  deaden  the  incentive 
to  grow  than  to  deaden  initiative;  no  more  right  to 
deaden  the  incentive  among  private  donors  and  tax- 
payers to  give  their  share  currently  than  to  deaden 
an  agency's  power  to  adapt  its  work  to  changing 
needs. 


SOME  OF  THE  PRESENT 
MOST  PRESSING  NEEDS: 
More  dormitories  ;  a  chapel  and 
music  hall  ;  large,  up-to-date 
horse  and  dairy  barns  ;  a  hospital 
in  which  the  sick  can  be  cared  for 
— and  the  well  taught  how  to 
care  for  the  sick  ;  better  and  more 
extensive  equipments  in  nearly  all 
departments;  and  most  of  all, 
perhaps — funds  to  complete  the 
reservoirs — one  of  which  is  well 
under  way. 


Illustrative  Brief  for  Conditional  Gift 

The  following  plan,  with  argument,  was  submitted 
February  23,  1907,  to  a  donor  who  rejected  it  and 


BRIEF  FOR  CONDITIONAL  GIFT      203 

decided  instead  to  "  put  his  light  on  a  hill,"  as  he 
expresses  it,  i.e.,  to  build  an  institution  with  ca- 
pacity for  helping  80  persons  at  a  time. 

I.    UNRESTRICTED    LEGACIES 

History  proves  that  they  frequently  encourage 
sloth,  extravagance,  insolence,  disregard  for  social 
needs ;  relieve  the  living  of  their  obligation ;  and  pre- 
vent educational  work.  There  is  a  conviction  on 
the  part  of  those  who  have  watched  most  carefully 
the  result  of  such  bequests  that  they  tend  to  lead 
boards  of  managers  to  cover  up  their  own  ineffi- 
ciency and  inactivity.  In  institution  after  institu- 
tion in  this  city  unrestricted  legacies  go  regularly 
to  make  up  deficits  in  current  accounts  instead  of 
perpetuating  the  giver's  interest.  It  is  notable  how 
few  suggestions  as  to  progressive  hospital  work  or 
as  to  protection  of  public  or  private  health  have 
emanated  from  hospitals  made  rich,  independent,  ob- 
stinate and  resentful  of  criticism  by  unrestricted 
legacies. 

I  have  suggested  in  an  article  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  March  that  where  unrestricted  legacies 
are  given  they  contain  the  qualifying  clause, —  "  If 
capital  is  consumed,  the  annual  reports  for  twenty- 
five  or  fifty  years  explain  on  what  occasion  and 
for  what  purpose  it  is  used,  for  example,  "  used 
to  build  an  ornamental  office,"  or  "  used  to  meet 
deficit,"  or  "  used  to  conduct  important  experi- 
ments," or  "  used  to  meet  emergency  caused  by 
earthquake."     Whatever  a  board  was  willing  to  ad- 


204  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

mit   thus   publicly   would   tend   gradually  to  be  the 
kind  of  thing  that  the  giving  public  would  approve. 

II.    LEGACIES  RESTRICTED  AS  TO   PURPOSE 

Unless  the  will  provides  for  the  consumption  of 
the  legacy  for  a  purpose  known  to  the  donor,  such 
gifts  frequently  outlive  their  usefulness ;  cannot 
change  with  changes  in  social  conditions;  handicap 
societies  in  time  of  need;  frequently  result  in  carry- 
ing coals  to  Newcastle  and  putting  bounty  on  wolf 
scalps  when  all  wolves  are  exterminated  except  those 
specially  reared  for  the-  bounty.  Such  legacies 
should  be  qualified, —  "  when  the  needs  herein  pro- 
vided for  no  longer  exist  or  are  otherwise  met  by 
funds  of  this  or  other  agencies,  the  trustees  may 
transfer  the  legacy  to  other  purposes  (to  be  re- 
ported annually  to  the  public)  for  25  to  50  years." 

HI.    CAPITAL    RESTRICTED,    INTEREST    UNRESTRICTED 

Insures  perpetuity,  prevents  beneficiary  society 
from  seeming  richer  than  it  is  or  from  being  misrep- 
resented by  a  financial  statement.  The  careful  hus- 
banding of  unrestricted  legacies  now  often  places  a 
society  at  a  greater  disadvantage  witji  the  casual 
reader  of  a  report  than  another  society  that  makes 
no  effort  to  raise  funds  and  eats  up  its  legacies. 
Newspapers  and  others  will  point  to  the  large  re- 
serve and  demand  that  it  be  used  before  emergency 
appeals  are  sent  to  the  public.  Such  restricted  lega- 
cies often  are  apt  in  time  to  pour  interest  on  sur- 


BRIEF  FOR  CONDITIONAL  GIFT      205 

plus.  Last  year  a  testator  gave  $25,000  to  a  hos- 
pital that  had  $50,000  surplus.  The  interest  on 
the  bequest,  $1,250,  added  nothing  whatever  to  the 
hospital  protection  of  this  city.  The  superintendent 
of  that  hospital  has  been  publicly  quoted  as  saying 
that  barrels  and  barrels  of  perfectly  good  food  are 
wasted  every  day  because  he,  the  superintendent, 
cannot  get  from  the  nurses  in  time  the  dietary 
needed  by  special  patients.  The  recent  bequest 
makes  it  less  urgent  upon  the  trustees  to  prevent 
waste  in  diet. 

IV.    ADVANTAGES  OF  A  TRUST  FOR  HOSPITAL  WORK 

A  Trust  for  Hospital  Work  could  for  all  time 

Help  patients  rather  than  trustees  or  names 

Help  where  help  is  most  needed 

Help  where  help  is  most  useful 

Avoid  duplication 

Avoid  doing  what  others  stand  ready  to  do 

Avoid  doing  what  the  City  would  do 

StimulatCjnot  chloroform  ^public  interest 

Do  pioneer  work 

Lead  in  new  work  for  the  sick 

Make  experiments 

Keep  pace  with  growth  of  town 

Cause  hospitals  to  study  their  problem  and  their 

opportunity 
Be  for  all  time  and  always  "  Johnnie  on  the  spot." 

V.    TRUST    PLAN    SUGGESTED 

Trust  for  Promoting  Hospital  Work  in  Greater 


206  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

New  York,  or  for  Promoting  Care  of  Sick  and  In- 
jured in  Greater  New  York,  or  Care  of  Sick  and  In- 
jured of  Greater  New  York,  or  Care  of  Sick  and 
Injured  of  Greater  New  York  and  Radius  within 
Ten  Miles  of  Greater  New  York. 

Banking  to  be  done  by  one  society,  not  itself  a 
hospital,  like  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Con- 
dition of  the  Poor,  the  State  Charities  Aid  Associa- 
tion, the  Children's  Aid  Society;  interest  to  annu- 
itants to  be  paid  by  this  society,  an  annual  account- 
ing to  be  made  by  the  society  as  banker  until  funds 
become  available  for  distribution. 

Investments  in  Provident  Loan  bonds  yielding 
6%,  thus  promoting  another  laudable  work  that 
benefits  the  poor,  or  in  Suburban  Homes  Company 
yielding  5%,  or  in  some  venture  like  working  girls' 
homes  that  is  sure  to  yield  5%  to  6%. 

Voting  and  distributing  trustees:  Presidents  of 
three  or  five  charitable  societies  in  touch  with  the 
needs  of  workers  and  recipients  and  with  the  work 
done  by  the  hospitals, —  e.g.,  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  Charity  Or- 
ganization Society,  County  Medical  Society,  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,  Children's 
Aid  Society,  State  Charities  Aid  Association. 

Principles  of  distribution:  To  seek  community 
needs  rather  than  trustee  needs.  If  one  section  of 
the  city  is  without  wards  for  babies  or  children,  en- 
courage the  beginning  of  hospital  treatment  of  such 
cases;  if  one  section  of  the  city  is  without  an  am- 


BRIEF  FOR  CONDITIONAL  GIFT      207 

bulancc,  make  possible  the  purchase  and  maintenance 
for  the  next  year  of  an  ambulance;  if  Germany  has 
proved  the  advantage  of  out  of  door  treatment  on 
the  roof  for  pneumonia,  encourage  hospitals  in  turn 
to  secure  better  ventilation  of  their  hospitals  and 
perhaps  to  establish  roof  gardens  where  possible; 
if  better  results  are  found  in  certain  cases  from  send- 
ing physicians  and  nurses  to  the  homes  rather  than 
bringing  patients  to  the  hospital,  make  possible  the 
experiment  necessary  to  prove  to  givers  that  such 
work  should  be  supported ;  if  after  treatment  of  ma- 
ternity cases  is  neglected,  pay  the  bill  for  some  hos- 
pital to  make  the  experiment ;  if  a  hospital  has  not 
yet  seen  the  advantage  of  systematic  effort  to  secure 
funds,  offer  to  duplicate  gifts  of  $5  and  less  up  to 
the  amount  of  $2,000  or  $5,000  for  the  first  year; 
if  a  hospital  thinks  it  is  too  poor  to  engage  a  com- 
petent bookkeeper  and  to  maintain  modern  methods 
of  bookkeeping,  bear  the  expense  necessary  to  prove 
to  the  trustees  that  no  hospital  is  rich  enough  to 
afford  a  poor  bookkeeper  and  no  hospital  too  poor 
to  spend  $5  in  saving  $10. 

A  portion  of  the  interest  to  be  available  for  pub- 
lication once  in  three  years  of  a  comprehensive  re- 
port to  all  hospitals  of  the  city  and  to  the  public 
showing  hospital  needs,  hospital  facilities  and  hos- 
pital development  to  date.  There  is  no  such  source 
of  information  in  existence  today. 

Annual  report  to  the  press,  to  the  hospitals  and 
to  the  public  to  be  made  explaining  reasons  that 


208  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

prompted  the  trustees  to  each  gift,  but  not  explain- 
ing why  they  declined  to  give  to  hospitals  whose  ap- 
plications were  rejected.  [Today  I  would  advise  at 
least  listing  all  refusals.]  This  report  in  itself 
would  become  an  important  educational  factor. 

Stimulating  By  Example 

Here  is  a  health  program  recommended  by  the  Nebraska  Asso-, 
ciation  of  School  Principals  and  Superintendents : 

Compulsory  installation  in  school  houses  of  ventilating  heat- 
ing plants 

Compulsory  cleaning  and  disinfecting  of  school  houses' at 
least  twice  a  year 

Compulsory  medical  inspection  of  school  children 

Compulsory  submission  of  all  school  house  plans  to  the  state 
architect  for  approval 

Compulsory  medical  inspection  of  all  school  teachers. 


Health,  Education,  Recreation,  No.  102 

Department  of  Child  Hygiene,  Russell  Sage  Foundation 

400  Metropolitan  Tower,  New  Yodc  City 


The  Difficult  Art  of  Giving 

Nothing  seems  more  preposterous  to  people  who 
are  without  money  or  to  people  who  have  programs 
for  spending  money  than  that  rich  men  and  women 
should  find  it  difficult  to  give  away  money.  That  it 
is  difficult  to  give  away  large  sums  of  money  even 
without  thinking,  without  regard  to  results,  has  been 
humorously  presented  on  the  stage  and  in  literature. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  were  given  sym- 
pathy for  rich  men  by  Brewster's  Millions. 

Hundreds  of  people  have  written  to  Mrs.  Harri- 
man  that  they  would  not  find  it  hard  to  give  away 
millions,  and  then  at  the  end  of  a  four  or  eight  page 
letter  have  asked  for  $50  or  $200.  Few  of  those 
who  have  asked  for  millions  could  work  out  a  plan 
for  spending  twice  as  much  as  they  asked  for.  It 
was  mighty  hard  work  merely  talking  with  the  peo- 
ple and  writing  the  letters  necessary  to  give  away 
the  $270,000,000  given  away  last  year  in  this  coun- 
try in  large  sums  alone.  To  give  away  huge  sums 
upon  the  basis  of  investigation,  conference,  thought- 
ful inquiry,  clear  vision  of  results  and  of  alterna- 
tives, is  a  task  beyond  the  strength  of  any  of  our 
multi-millionaires.  That  is  the  reason  why  they 
must  collaborate  in  their  thinking  and  in  their  giv- 
ing. Giving  money  in  the  wrong  way  may  not  only 
buy  positive  harm  for  the  recipient, —  many  people 


210  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

could  endure  the  thought  of  this  alternative, —  but 
it  actually  buys  annoyance  for  the  donor.  It  is 
too  much  to  expect  people  to  spend  millions  a  year 
buying  cumulative  annoyance. 

No  fortune  is  great  enough  to  answer  all  appeals 
without  question.  The  moment  the  donor  begins  to 
question  it  becomes  hard  work.  Hence  the  need  of 
cooperative  study  and  giving,  and  a  clearing  house 
for  givers  and  appealers. 

I  cite  on  page  405  the  agency  which  was  quite 
certain  it  needed  $63,000  but  did  not  know  how  in 
the  world  to  spend  more  than  $19,000. 

The  ladies  of  a  western  metropolis  organized  a 
baby  saving  campaign.  After  a  park  pavilion  had 
been  outfitted  to  sell  milk  and  hold  clinics  in,  after 
a  maintenance  fund  had  been  guaranteed,  medical 
service  and  milk  donated,  it  was  found  there  were  no 
babies. 

An  author  once  consulted  me  about  a  book  which 
was  to  close  with  a  constructive  program  for  giving 
away  a  huge  fortune.  He  wanted  me  to  describe 
several  instances  of  poverty.  This  I  refused  to  do, 
partly  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  the  way  to 
write  a  book  and  partly  because  the  truth  could  not 
be  given  second  hand.  He  finally  accepted  my 
proposition  that  he  go  to  certain  families  where  dis- 
tress was  known  to  exist,  not  in  the  capacity  of  a 
novelist,  but  as  a  relief  visitor  whose  mission  would 
be  obvious  to  the  family  and  where  he  would  need  to 
exercise  judgment  and  do  something  for  them. 


IS  GIVING  EASY,  IF  WISE?  211 

When  it  came  to  his  plan  to  convert  a  mythical 
largest  fortune  in  the  world  into  a  public  benefac- 
tion he  consulted  me  again.  He  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  start  a  model  orphan  asylum  and  model  fac- 
tory for  tuberculous  men  in  a  steel  town.  I  asked 
him  how  large  a  town  he  had  chosen  for  this  bene- 
faction. He  said  about  6,000.  When  I  asked  him 
whire  he  was  going  to  get  his  orphans  and  his  tu- 
berculous patients,  he  seemed  to  think  this  would  be 
easy  until  I  asked  him  if  he  had  ever  computed  the 
interest  on  $800,000,000.  When  this  was  done  he 
saw  he  would  have  at  least  $32,000,000  a  year  to 
spend  on  the  eligible  orphans  in  a  town  of  6,000 
(his  model  factory  for  tuberculous  men  would,  of 
course,  pay  dividends  and  not  encroach  upon  the 
dividends  of  his. capital).  I  thought,  of  course,  he 
would  revise  his  plan.  Not  a  bit  of  it !  He  was 
dumfounded  for  a  few  seconds,  guessed  he  had  over- 
reached himself,  and  cut  the  fortune  to  $400,- 
000,000 !  Too  many  of  us  want  to  spend  other  peo- 
ple's money  that  way. 

Mr.  Rockefeller's  Greatest  Gift  —  An  Invitation 

To  lift  an  Alaskan  river  bodily  from  its  gold 
laden  bed;  to  save  a  baby's  life  by  transfusing  into 
its  veins  the  blood  of  its  father;  to  make  cactus 
leaves  feed  flower  and  fruit  —  are  indeed  wonderful 
feats  of  science.  Simple  are  these,  however,  and  in- 
significant, compared  with  giving  a  new  river  bed  to 
the  thought  currents  of  humanity,  making  over  old 


212  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

motives,  inspiring  new  habits,  transfusing  new  life 
into  old  or  weak  reasons  for  altruism.  Yet  that  is 
what  public  discussion  could  have  done  with  the  two 
chapters  of  Mr.  Rockefeller's  autobiography  en- 
titled The  Difficult  Art  of  Giving  and  The  Co- 
operative Principle  in  Giving  which  may  be  noted 
as  turning  points,  not  because  they  contain  more 
critical  and  constructive  propositions  about  giving 
than  can  be  found  elsewhere  in  any  ten  volumes  in 
American  literature,  not  because  the  largest  giver 
thought  it  worth  his  while  to  take  into  his  confi- 
dence small  giver,  not-yet-giver,  beneficiary  and  ad- 
ministrator, but  because  he  lifted  the  embargo  on 
free  discussion  of  philanthropy. 

If  20,000,000  adults  in  the  United  States  think 
that  a  very  rich  man  has  the  right  to  give  away  his 
money  as  he  pleases  without  asking  if  he  hinders  or 
furthers  human  progress,  or  whether  it  is  expended 
profitably  or  wastefully,  why  should  they  who  spend 
millions  and  millions  through  taxes  resent  waste  of 
public  funds?  Curiously  enough,  what  an  ordinary 
man  thinks  about  his  own  spending  is  profoundly 
influenced  by  what  millionaires  say  about  their  spend- 
ing. Therefore  the  tremendous  significance  of  Mr. 
Rockefeller's  accepting  for  himself  and  for  all  givers 
not  only  Mr.  Carnegie's  doctrine  that  it  is  a  duty 
to  give  away  money  but  also  the  still  more  impor- 
tant rule  that  large  givers  are  under  obligations  to 
give  their  money  in  ways  that  will  insure  the  larg- 
est possible  returns  to  humanity. 


MR.  ROCKEFELLER'S  GREATEST  GIFT    213 

Yet  a  paradoxical  silence  followed  the  enuncia- 
tion of  Mr.  Rockefeller's  philosophy.  It  was  not 
because  people  did  not  know  what  was  contained  in 
the  articles,  for  they  were  printed  broadcast.  Was 
it  because  we  were  not  well  enough  informed  to  com- 
ment or  to  criticise  intelligently,  or  were  we  afraid 
to  comment  adversely  and  reluctant  to  applaud? 
Even  the  then  Charities  and  the  Commons  contented 
itself  with  a  more  casual  reference  in  its  clipping 
column  than  it  would  have  given  to  the  same  articles 
if  written  by  William  Williams  of  Williamstown. 
Later  it  accepted  from  me  a  summary  of  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller's propositions  which  I  here  repeat  for  the 
sake  of  emphasizing  the  need  for  a  clearing  house, 
and  of  recording  (in  italics)  some  demurrers  to  Mr. 
Rockefeller's  working  theory: 

The    Motive   that   Should   Inspire   Giving 

The  fundamental  principle  —  one's  ideal  —  should 
be  to  use  one's  means  for  the  advancement  of 
civilization 

It  is  easy  to  do  harm  in  giving  money 

The  giver  of  money,  if  his  contribution  is  to  be 
valuable,  must  add  service  in  the  way  of  study 
and  he  must  help  to  attack  and  improve  under- 
lying conditions 

These  rich  men  we  read  about  in  the  newspapers 
cannot  get  present  returns  beyond  a  well  de- 
fined limit  for  their  expenditure 

The  only  way  wealthy  men  can  receive  a  real  equiv- 
alent for  money  spent  is  to  cultivate  a  taste  for 


214  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

giving  where  the  money  can  produce  an  effect 
that  will  be  a  lasting  gratification 

The   Deficiencies   of   Present   Methods   of   Giving 

Today  the  whole  machinery  of  benevolence  is  con- 
ducted upon  more  or  less  haphazard  principles 

Money  is  a  feeble  offering  without  the  study  be- 
hind it  {particularly  by  those  who  spend)  which 
will  make  its  expenditure  effective  {Study  by 
givers  will  not  of  itself  make  spending  effective) 

Probably  the  greatest  single  obstacle  to  the  prog- 
ress and  happiness  of  the  American  people  lies 
in  the  willingness  of  so  many  men  to  invest  their 
time  and  money  in  multiplying  competitive  in- 
dustries (or  charities)  instead  of  opening  up 
new  fields  and  putting  their  money  into  lines  of 
industry  (and  benefaction)  and  development 
that  are  needed 

Unnecessary  charities  seldom  are  abandoned  when 
once  the  sympathies  of  the  worthy  people,  how- 
ever misinformed,  are  heartily  enlisted 

People  who  have  much  to  do  with  ministers  and 
those  who  hold  confidential  positions  in  churches 
have  had  at  times  surprising  experiences  in 
meeting  what  is  sometimes  practiced  in  the  way 
of  ecclesiastical  business 

Good  men  and  women  are  wearing  out  their  lives 
to  raise  money  to  assist  institutions  that  are 
conducted  by  more  or  less  unskilled  methods  — 
a  tremendous  waste  of  our  best  material 

Enough  money  has  been  squandered  on  unwise 
educational  projects  to  have  built  up  a  national 
system  of  education  adequate  to  our  needs  if 
the  money  had  been  properly  directed  to  that 
end 


MR.  ROCKEFELLER'S  PHILOSOPHY     215 

Recent  Progress  in  Cooperative  Giving 

All  over  the  world  the  need  of  dealing  with  the 
questions  of  philanthropy  with  something  be- 
yond the  impulses  of  emotion  is  evident 

We  are  making  wonderful  (only  moderate  when 
compared  with  our  knowledge)  advances  in  the 
field  of  scientific  giving 

The  orderly  combination  of  philanthropic  effort  is 
growing  daily  (too  slowly) 

A  few  of  the  best  people  are  standing  shoulder  to 
shoulder  as  they  attack  (too  exclusively  through 
colleges)   the  problems  of  educational  uplift 

The  prudent  and  thoughtful  giver  will  more  and 
more  choose  great  and  responsible  (and  effi- 
cient) organizations  as  the  medium  for  his  gifts 
and  for  the  distribution  of  his  funds  to  distant 
fields  (and  will  make  conditions  to  insure  future 
efficiency) 

One  ought  not  to  investigate  a  single  institution 
by  itself  but  always  in  its  relation  to  all  simi- 
lar (and  related)  institutions  (including  gov- 
ernment) in  the  territory  (so  as)  not  to  in- 
augurate new  charities  in  fields  already  cov- 
ered, but  rather  to  strengthen  and  protect  those 
at  work 

Mr.  Rockefeller's  Attitude  Toward  Appeals 

It  is  highly  important  that  every  worthy  charita- 
ble institution  shall  have  at  all  times  the  larg- 
est possible  number  of  current  contributors 
(Oftentimes  results  would  be  better  if  ten  chari- 
ties had  100  contributors  each,  who  cared,  than 
if  each  had  small  gifts  with  less  interest  from 
1,000  givers) 


216  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Every  charitable  institution  should  constantly  be 
making  appeal  {Only  if  it  needs  money. 
Many  do  not.  Mr.  Rockefeller's  own  founda- 
tions report  but  do  not  appeal.  The  best  pur- 
pose of  appeals  is  to  inform) 

If  constant  appeals  are  to  be  successful,  the  insti- 
tution is  forced  to  do  excellent  work  and  meet 
real  and  manifest  needs  (This  is  contrary  to 
everyday  results.  Fraud  frequently  out- 
appeals  efficiency  in  the  same  field.  See  Mr. 
Rockefeller's  list  of  deficiencies  above) 

People  in  great  numbers  who  are  constantly  im- 
portuning for  interviews  are  wrong  in  thinking 
that  the  interview,  if  possible,  is  the  best  or 
even  a  good  way  of  securing  the  thing  they 
want  (from  efficient  givers) 

It  is  not  personal  interviews  and  impassioned  ap- 
peals, but  sound  and  justifying  worth  that 
should  attract  and  secure  the  funds  of  philan- 
thropy 

Written  presentations  form  the  necessary  basis  of 
presentation  and  consultation  between  members 
of  our  staff  and  of  the  final  presentation  to  me, 
thus  securing  for  a  cause,  if  it  be  a  good  one,  a 
consideration  that  cannot  be  given  in  a  mere 
verbal  interview 

Local  churches,  local  hospitals,  charities,  kinder- 
gartens and  the  like  ought  not  to  make  appeal 
outside  of  the  local  communities  which  they  serve 

National  and  international  claims  may  properly 
appeal  to  men  of  large  means  throughout  the 
country  whose  wealth  (is  gained  from  cosmo- 
politan sources  and)  admits  of  their  doing  some- 
thing more  than  assist  in  caring  for  local  chari- 
ties 


MR.  ROCKEFELLER'S  PHILOSOPHY     217 

There  is  great  value  in  dealing  with  an  organiza- 
tion which  knows  all  of  the  farts 

The  three  tests  of  efficient  philanthropy  are  (1) 
generous  and  adequate  support,  (2)  manage- 
ment by  scientific,  efficient  and  ablest  men,  and 
(3)  strict  accountability  of  managers  not  only 
for  the  correct  financing  of  funds  but  for  the 
intelligent  and  effective  use  of  every  penny 

Until  1890  I  was  still  following  a  haphazard 
method  of  giving  here  and  there  as  appeals  pre- 
sented themselves 

I  worked  myself  almost  into  a  nervous  breakdown 
in  groping  my  way  without  sufficient  guide 
through  this  ever  widening  field  of  philanthropic 
endeavor 

We  uniformly  ask  applicants  to  state  their  case 
tersely  and  as  fully  as  they  find  necessary  in 
writing 

Applications  are  carefully  considered  by  various 
assistants 

If  personal  interviews  are  found  desirable  by  our 
assistants,  they  are  investigated  from  our  office 

We  have  not  been  satisfied  with  giving  to  causes 
which  appealed  to  us 

Where  organizations  are  not  found  ready  to  hand 
the  members  of  the  committee  have  tried  to 
create  them  (An  astonishingly  small  number 
of  such  creations  appear  when  the  possibilities 
are  considered) 

The  Heirarchy  of  Needs  and  of  Opportunities  for 
Giving  ' 

The  best  philanthropy  is  the  investment  of  effort, 
or  time  or  money  carefully  considered  with  rela- 


218  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

tion  to  the  power  of  employing  people  at  a  re- 
munerative wage  to  expend  and  develop  re- 
sources at  hand  and  to  give  opportunity  for 
progress  and  helpful  labor  where  it  did  not  ex- 
ist before 

The  best  philanthropy  is  constantly  in  search  of  a 
cause,  an  attempt  to  cure  evils  at  their  source 
(or  to  achieve  new  opportunities  and  benefits. 
Not  every  limitation  is  an  "  evil  ") 

No  less  important  (than  great  hospitals)  are  the 
achievements  in  research  that  reveal  hitherto 
unknown  facts  about  disease  and -provide  the 
remedies  by  which  many  of  them  can  be  cured 
or  even  stamped  out  (Research  too  often 
names,  without  providing,  remedies.  Adminis- 
tration, not  research,  stamps  out) 

It  requires  a  better  type  of  mind  to  seek  out  or 
start  or  create  the  new  (or  readapt  the  old,  a 
much  neglected  alternative)  than  to  follow  the 
worn  paths  of  accepted  success 

If  the  people  can  be  educated  to  help  themselves 
we  strike  at  the  root  of  many  of  the  evils  of  the 
world;  the  only  thing  which  is  of  lasting  bene- 
fit to  a  man  is  that  which  he  does  for  himself 
(Mr.  Rockefeller  began  doing  for  the  south  by 
eradicating  hook  worm.  Residence  in  colleges 
does  for  students,  being  brought  to  milk  sta- 
tions saves  babies.  Many  money  gifts  prompt 
self-help.  Doing  in  cooperation  with  others, 
i.e.,  through  taxes,  is  doing  for  oneself) 

Everywhere  help  (as  yet  generally  inadequate)  is 
being  given  to  those  heroic  men  and  women  who 
are  devoting  themselves  to  practical  and  essen- 
tially scientific  tasks 

Progress  in  government  and  law,  in  language  and 


MR.  ROCKEFELLER'S  PHILOSOPHY  219 

literature,  in  science  and  philosophy,  in  art  and 
refinement,  we  have  thought  to  be  best  pro- 
moted by  means  of  the  higher  education  (which 
should  not  be  synonymous  nor  co-terminous 
with  college  and  university  education) 

The  purposes  of  higher  education  are  disseminat- 
ing more  generally  different  information,  but 
quite  as  much,  and  even  more,  promoting  orig- 
inal investigation  (the  most  effective  of  which 
is  done  outside  institutions  of  learning,  in  health 
laboratories ,  manufacturing  testing  plants,  hos- 
pitals, etc) 

The  individual  institution  of  learning  can  reach 
only  a  limited  number  of  people  (The  more 
reason  for  strengthening  educational  agencies 
not  ordinarily  included  in  "  higher  education" 
such  as  normal  schools,  the  Survey,  etc) 

Every  new  fact  discovered,  every  widening  of  the 
boundaries  of  human  knowledge  by  research, 
becomes  (very  slowly  unless  money  is  spent  on 
extending  it)  universal  information  to  all  insti- 
tutions of  learning  and  becomes  a  benefaction 
(in  some  instances)  at  once  (in  some,  never)  to 
the  whole  race  (Nothing  needs  scientific  re- 
searching more  than  the  huge  sums  now  being 
spent  on  widening  the  bounds  of  human  knowl- 
edge by  research  and  the  alleged  training  of 
men  for  research.  Facts  are  by  no  means  of 
equal  service,  many  are  dis serviceable  except  for 
jugglery,  none  are  more  serviceable  than  those 
which  show  how  to  use  more  efficiently,  and  for 
a  larger  number,  facts  already  known) 

If  we  assist  the  higher  forms  of  education  in  what- 
ever field  we  secure  a  wider  influence  in  enlarg- 
ing the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge   (but 


220  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

not  always  in  proportion  to  cost  and  oppor- 
tunity. There  is  reason  to  believe  that  im- 
provement of  elementary  education  would  do 
more  indirectly  for  higher  forms  of  education 
than  assisting  them  directly.  As  competition 
increases,  the  product  which  survives  to  higher 
education  increases  and  improves) 

All  new  facts  discovered  or  set  in  motion  become 
the  universal  heritage  (sometimes  promptly, 
sometimes  slowly,  sometimes  never.  Until  ap- 
plied administratively  in  business  and  govern- 
ment, new  facts  tend  to  remain  a  private  mo- 
nopoly, not  a  universal  heritage.  It  was  the 
telling  over  and  over  again  plus  the  cleaning  — 
and  not  the  discovery  — -  which  made  facts 
about  the  hook  worm  a  universal  heritage) 

Most  of  the  great  achievements  in  science,  medi- 
cine or  literature  are  the  flower  of  the  higher 
education  (and  many  of  them,  the  sap  of  lower 
education.  An  evaluation  of  higher  education's 
share  will  be  more  trustworthy  after  a  detailed 
study  is  made) 

The  Advantages  of  the  Benevolent  Trust 

Combination  in  charitable  work  has  been  some- 
thing of  a  hobby  with  me  for  several  years 

The  organization  of  (benevolent)  work  in  com- 
bination (if  this  results  in  collaboration,  not 
insubordination)  should  not  and  does  not  stifle 
the  work  of  individuals  but  strengthens  and 
stimulates  it 

We  cannot  afford  to  have  great  souls,  capable  of 
doing  most  effective  work,  slaving  to  raise  the 
money  (This  idea  was  expressed  in  scores  of 
our  appeals,  but  has  been  given  effect  in  few 
cities  and  in  negligible  instances) 


MR.  ROCKEFELLER'S  PHILOSOPHY     221 

That  should  be  a  business  man's  task 

The  teachers,  workers  and  inspired  leaders  of  the 
people  should  be  relieved  of  pressing  and  belit- 
tling money  cares  (which  will  never  happen  un- 
til capital  seeks  investments  in  philanthropy 
instead  of  throwing  appeals  into  waste  baskets 
or  waiting  for  "  attractive  "  persons  and  ob- 
jects) 

The  Benevolent  Trust  will  look  the  facts  in  the 
face,  will  be  sure  to  attract  the  brains  of  the 
best  men  we  have  in  our  commercial  affairs  as 
great  business  opportunities  attract  them  now, 
will  sustain  and  applaud  effective  workers  and 
institutions,  and  will  uplift  the  standard  of  good 
work  by  helping  all  people  chiefly  to  help  them- 
selves (Only  if  compelled  by  publicity  to  com- 
pare for  itself  and  for  the  public  what  it  rejects 
or  postpones  with  what  it  gives) 

There  are  always  unselfish  men  of  the  best  char- 
acter to  help  (up  to  their  knowledge,  not  be- 
yond) in  every  large  philanthropic  enterprise 
(but  as  Mr.  Rockefeller  shows,  they  at  present 
help  the  wrong  way  if  miseducated) 

Miscellaneous  Observations  that  Need  to  be 
Challenged 

We  must  always  remember  that  there  is  not 
enough  money  for  the  work  of  human  uplift  and 
that  there  never  can  be  (There  is  money  to 
spare  if  government  agencies  be  harnessed;  there 
are  always  vastly  more  people  up  than  down) 

The  failures  which  a  man  makes  in  his  life  are  due 
almost  always  to  some  definite  aspect  in  his  per- 
sonality, some  weakness  of  body  or  mind,  char- 
acter, will  or  temperament  (or  environment  be- 


Zm  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

yond  his  control,  transmissible  disease,  distance 
from  a  hospital,  absence  of  higher  education  or 
of  means  to  take  it.  As  Bernard  Shaw  says : 
**  What  a  man  is  depends  on  his  character,  but 
what  he  does  and  what  he  thinks  of  what  he 
does  depends  on  his  circumstances.  The  char- 
acteristics that  ruin  a  man  in  one  class  make  him 
eminent  in  another.  Bill,  without  any  change 
in  his  character  whatsoever,  mil  react  one  way 
to  one  sort  of  treatment  and  another  way  to  an- 
other ") 

The  only  way  to  overcome  these  faults  is  to  build 
up  his  personality  from  within  (and  a  commu- 
nity's personality,  i.e.,  environment,  cooperative 
agencies  for  mutual  help,  scientific  standards  of 
giving) 

The  principal  cause  for  the  economic  difference 
between  people  is  the  difference  in  personality. 
(It  is  because  this  statement  needs  modification 
that  Mr.  Rockefeller  started  the  General  Edu- 
cation Board,  Institute  of  Medical  Research, 
Benevolent  Trust,  etc.  A  child  with  infantile 
paralysis  may  have  vastly  more  "  personality  " 
than  his  twin  brother  without  infantile  paraly- 
sis. A  farmer  who  does  not  live  near  one  of 
Mr.  Rockefeller's  "  Demonstration  Farms  "  has 
just  as  much  "  personality  "  as  that  same 
farmer  after  the  Demonstration  moves  to  his 
neighborhood.  Going  to  college  increases  eco- 
nomic power  and  at  the  very  same  time  fre- 
quently weakens  personality) 

It  is  only  the  spirit  of  giving  that  counts  (ex- 
cept the  result  which  is  even  more  important) 

The  most  generous  people  in  the  world  are  the 
very  poor 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  GIVING        223 

The  general  idea  of  cooperation  in  giving  for  edu- 
cation, I  have  felt,  scored  a  real  step  in  ad- 
vance when  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  consented  to 
become  a  member  of  the  General  Education 
Eoard 

The  Petitioner's  Philosophy  of  Giving 
It  is  doubtful  whether  the  philosophy  of  giving 
formulated  by  Mr.  Carnegie  or  Mr.  Rockefeller 
rings  truer  than  does  that  of  "  begging  letters." 
After  all,  philosophy  is  not  much  more  than  straight- 
seeing,  and  a  person  in  trouble,  needing  help,  can  see 
almost  as  much  and  as  far  as  a  person  wanting  to 
get  rid  of  money.  Neither  a  multi-  millionaire  nor 
a  professor  of  ethics  could  surpass  the  good  wife 
whose  husband  is  harassed  to  pay  $200  debts:  He 
always  thinks  of  killing  himself;  I  always  tell  him 
not  to. 

A  telling  commentary  upon  the  flow  of  large  gifts 
is  Why  was  I  not  a  church?  Why  not  indeed? 
Why  was  I  not  a  library?  Why  was  I  not  a  relief 
society?  Why  was  I  not  an  orphan  asylum  instead 
of  an  orphan  or  a  plan  for  preventing  orphans? 

Gifts  should  be  considered  in  terms  of  their  alter- 
natives; for  example:  What  seems  so  inexplicable  to 
me  is  that  persons  give  so  readily  large  sums  to 
causes  already  provided  for  and  overlook  the  small 
opportunities  at  hand.  Agajn:  $1,000,000  instead 
of  being  spent  on  a  park  would  place  500  men  in 
perpetual  employment  every  200  days.  A  woman 
teacher  wishing  a  loan  says:  There  is  a  vast  differ- 


224 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


ence  between  the  ashing  of  alms  for  personal  use  and 
being  helped  to  earn  one's  own  living, 

Epictetus  himself  might  disagree  with  the  mother 
of  two  children  who  writes:  It  is  a  greater  charity 
to  build  homes  than  to  give  libraries;  but  he  would 
take  off  his  hat  to  her  homily,  Hope  is  but  a  wisp 
of  hay  held  just  out  of  reach  of  a  mule's  nose. 

Illustrations  like  the  five  that  follow  could  be  mul- 
tiplied : 


Z£€*~<-c^e~r}\ 


1  &~&~r-<se~*y. 

The  strength  which  ought  to  be  applied  to 
building  up  the  flock  of  Christ  must,  under 
these  circumstances,  be  spent  in  a  continual  ef- 
fort  to   raise  funds.     The  time  of  the  rector 


APPEALERS'  PHILOSOPHY  225 

must  be  largely  devoted  to  the  difficulties  of  the 
financial  situation.  He  is  made  a  financial 
agent  instead  of  the  pastor  and  as  a  conse- 
quence the  spiritual  lives  of  the  parish  must 
suffer 

For  five  years  I  have  beeji  writing  to  million- 
aires  and  no  one  has  offered  to  lend  a  hand. 
I  challenge  full  inquiry,  but  would  like  to  point 
out  that  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to  ask  questions 
about  a  man  of  advanced  ideas  from  people 
who  don't  know  him  and  merely  judge  of  him 
from  gossip  and  hearsay 

It  is  hard  to  be  constructively  ambitious  in 
the  face  of  a  grave  lack  of  funds 

I  have  no  desire  that  money  should  go  to 
my  college  unless  it  can  make  reasonably  clear 
that  it  offers  a  most  unique  opportunity  for  the 
transmission  of  wealth  of  character 

A  Newspaper  Symposium  on  Giving 

There  have  been  many  symposiums  on  giving  in 
different  magazines  and  newspapers.  Their  relative 
fruitlessness  is  due  more  to  lack  of  definiteness  in 
the  conditions  of  the  symposium  than  to  lack  of 
suggestions  among  readers.  In  its  issue  of  May  29, 
1908,  the  New  York  Evening  Post  invited  plans 
for  investing  sums  of  $50,000  to  $10,000,000  for 
"  your  city,  your  state  or  the  Nation  "  in  a  way  to 
guarantee : 

(1)  that  the  gifts  shall  be  doing  educational  work 
twenty  years  from  now;  (2)  that  they  shall 
injure  no  one;   (3)   that  they  shall  not  dupli- 


226  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

cate  existing  effort;  (4)  that  they  shall  not 
relieve  taxpayers  and  contributors  of  an  ob- 
vious duty;  (5)  that  their  objects  and  meth- 
ods shall  be  flexible  enough  to  change  with  the 
changing  needs  of  the  communities  helped. 
Plans  were  to  present  a  reasonable  estimate  in 
detail,  showing  how  much  money  should  go  into 
plant,  how  much  into  equipment,  how  much 
for  professional  and  clerical  service,  how  much 
for  investigations,  carfares,  and  incidental  ex- 
penses. 

Readers  were  invited  to  include  community  needs 
that  might  be  met  by  taxpayers  if  properly  led, — 
a  playground,  seaside  park,  a  government  that 
spends  taxes  wisely,  an  efficient  health  department, 
a  beautiful  public  building.  I  give  the  abstract  of 
my  introductory  article  because  it  will  suggest  the 
point  of  view  with  which  began  the  series  on  "  How 
to  give  wisely." 

Millions  differ  from  dimes  and  dollars  not  in 
the  motives  of  the  spender,  but  in  the  results 
of  the  spending.  It  was  a  modern  fakir  that 
first  twisted  the  prohibition  of  self  advertise- 
ment — "  Let  not  thy  right  hand  know  what 
thy  left  hand  doeth  "  —  to  mean  that  men  and 
women  need  not  give  proof  that  they  are  bear- 
ing their  share  of  the  common  burden.  .  .  . 
Generosity  is  infectious;  the  news  of  it  does  as 
much  good  as  the  gift  itself.  .  .  .  Men 
and  women  who  do  not  give  at  all  should*  not  be 
shielded  by  those  who  are  too  modest  to  make 
known  their  deeds   of  mercy  and  of  altruism. 


"  HOW  TO  GIVE  WISELY  »  SERIES     227 

No  vanity  is  more  damaging  than  that 
of  the  altruist  who  prides  himself  on  his  repu- 
tation for  giving  under  a  bushel. 

Taint  is  not  subject  to  the  law,  "  Distance 
lends  enchantment  to  the  view."  .  .  .  The 
closer  you  get  to  large  gifts  for  yourself,  the 
clearer  it  becomes  that  there  is  no  taint.  •  .  . 
Civilization,  not  money,  is  tainted,  is  the  gen- 
eral verdict. 

Sickness  that  is  as  unnecessary  as  smallpox 
costs  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  more  every 
year  than  is  given  for  hospital  work  in  all 
states.  ...  A  great  need  which  the  tax- 
payer has  not  yet  seen,  but  which  the  philan- 
thropist could  meet,  is  for  schools  and  chairs 
of  preventive  medicine. 

Much  as  we  Americans  laud  our  public 
schools,  we  are  really  very  snobbish  in  our  defi- 
nition of  education.  .  .  .  Only  snobbish- 
ness credits  $250,000  for  a  gymnasium  to  a 
woman's  college,  with  a  greater  educational 
possibility  than  $25,000  for  a  public  bath  to 
teach  the  pleasures  and  economies  of  cleanli- 
ness to  an  immigrant  settlement. 

Not  infrequently  gifts  subsidize  miseduca- 
tion  rather  than  right  education.  ...  So 
far  as  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  pensioning 
college  professors  relieves  colleges  of  their  ob- 
ligation to  pay  their  way  as  they  go,  it  is  no 
more  educational  than  a  working  girls'  home 
that  enables  those  it  shelters  to  live  on  less  than 
a  living  wage. 

Inefficient  government  actually  produces  a 
large  part  of  the  distress  that  makes  private 
philanthropy    necessary.     .     .     .     Not    infre- 


228  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

quently  private  benefaction  is  so  spent  that  it 
not  only  diverts  attention  from  wretchedness, 
ignorance  and  incapacity  due  to  inefficient  gov- 
ernment, but  actually  aggravates  those  evils. 
.  Wherever  a  small  fraction  of  a  class, 
rather  than  all  members  of  a  class,  receives  a 
large  gift,  the  donor  is  apt  in  time  to  do  more 
harm  than  good  to  the  very  class  that  provokes 
his  generosity.  .  .  .  The  cost  of  Pennsyl- 
vania's easily  preventable  typhoid  epidemics 
has  been  vastly  greater  than  the  princely  gifts 
of  Pennsylvania's  millionaires.  .  .  .  Every 
large  bequest  that  is  not  designated  to  some 
new  not-yet-appreciated  purpose  tends  to  de- 
crease current  contributions. 

Giving  away  money  without  wasting  it  and 
without  harming  anybody  is  pretty  hard  work. 

Ideas  for  efficient  giving  are  rarer 
than  willingness  to  give.  .  .  .  Probably 
the  first  ten  things  the  average  reader  would 
want  to  do  with  Mrs.  Sage's  gift  are  either  not 
needed  or  can  not  be  done  in  the  way  proposed. 

Our  appeals  for  money  do  not  spring 
primarily  from  knowledge  of  what  our  commu- 
nities need.  .  .  .  Experience  of  centuries 
proves  that  however  laudable  it  is  to  help  a 
charity  out  of  a  ditch,  indiscriminate  giving  to 
a  hospital  or  church  or  charitable  society  sim- 
ply serves  to  dig  another  ditch. 

Among  the  72  suggestions  sent  to  the  Evening 
Post  from  various  parts  of  the  country  in  the  next 
few  weeks  were  the  following,  then  not  yet  begun  or 
in  their  infancy,  and  well  worthy  of  submission  to 
givers  wishing  alternatives: 


A  SYMPOSIUM  ON  GIVING  <><><) 

College  instruction  in  government  methods;  im- 
provement of  municipal  government  by  itiner- 
ant "  business  doctors  ".  (beginning)  ;  instruc- 
tion of  cities  in  treatment  of  city  sinking 
funds;  a  national  bureau  of  housing  and  town 
planning;  care  of  colored  girls  coming  to  north- 
ern cities ;  the  study  of  statewide  prohibition 
then  extensively  beginning  in  the  south ;  study 
of  effect  of  alcohol  on  industrial  efficiency ;  edu- 
cational people's  theatres  for  small  profit; 
school  for  mothers;  study  of  race  suicide,  with 
a  propaganda  against  its  spread;  industrial 
education  in  the  rural  schools  of  Georgia; 
schools  for  servants;  schools  of  preventive 
medicine ;  the  health  of  school  children ;  study 
of  financial  methods  of  churches  and  charita- 
ble institutions ;  decoration  of  school  buildings 
and  adornment  of  school  grounds;  support  of 
"  school  visitors  " ;  a  museum  of  standards  to 
be  twenty  times  larger  than  that  in  Berlin; 
nationwide  propaganda  to  combat  the  socialis- 
tic movement 


ONE  MORE  NEWSPAPER  HAS 
A  SCHOOL  PAGE 

THE  HUDSON  OBSERVER  PUBLISHES  A  SCHOOL  PAGE  ON  SATURDAYS 

Some  topics  already  discussed : 

Broader  use  of  school  buildings 

Why  some  pupils  are  not  promoted 

Pupil  self-government 

Things  that  puzzle  faithful  teachers 

Some  suggestions  from  a  teacher  of  experience 

A  letter  from  the  teacher  to  the  parent 


230  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

142  School  Superintendents  on  Will  making 
In  April,  1912,  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research 
sent  out   the   following  card  to  school   superintend- 
ents of  larger  cities : 

Do  Will  Makers  In  Your  City  Remember 
Your  Public  Schools? 

We  have  been  asked  to  suggest  how  $10,000  a 
year  could  be  spent  in  one  of  the  cities  whose 
superintendents  will  receive .  this  card,  "for  the 
benefit  of  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  in 
public   schools." 

Yours  May  Be  the  School  Children  In 
Question 

Even  if  not,  perhaps  there  are  today  in  your 
city  several  persons  making  wills  who  would  like 
to  give  what  you  need  if  they  knew  you  had  plans 
to  compete  with  other  opportunities  for  private 
benevolence. 

Is  your  city  ready  to  receive  a  gift  of  $10,000  for 
public    schools? 

Have  you  any  plans  for  spending  different  sums 
which  willmakers  or  other  donors  plan  to  give? 

We  are  passing  the  Question  on  to  you  with  the 
thought  that  in  your  next  annual  report  you  might 
care  to  suggest  briefly  for  prospective  donors  in 
your  city,  how  different  amounts,  either  in  lump 
sums  given  outright  or  through  annual  instalments, 
could  be  spent,  without  relieving  taxpayers  of  al- 
ready recognized  burdens,  in  meeting  definite,  ob- 
vious needs  of  school  children;  i.e.,  sites,  buildings, 
equipment,  athletic  fields,  decorations,  dental  clinics, 
nurses,  "  home  and  school  visitors,"  relief,  special- 
ized instruction,  concerts,  prizes,  scholarships,  spe- 
cial sick  fund  for  teachers,  cooperating  outside 
agencies,  etc. 

We   shall    send   you    and   your   local   papers   the 
summary    of    suggestions    received    in     answer    to 
the  attached  card  without,   however,   disclosing  the 
identity  of  the  cities  to  which  suggestions  refer. 
Efficient   Citizenship   No.   546 

BUREAU    OF    MUNICIPAL    RESEARCH 
261  Broadway,  New  York 


WILL  MAKING  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS     231 

Hi  turn  postal  cards  from  142  superintendents 
named  30  different  classes  of  local  needs,  separating 
lump  sum  requirements  of  over  $3,000,000  from 
local  maintenance  funds  requiring  the  income  on  $7,- 
500,000.  For  example,  athletic  fields  and  play- 
grounds were  asked  for  61  cities;  special  school 
buildings  for  47  cities ;  vocational  schools  for  17 ; 
dental  clinics  for  14;  teachers'  pensions  for  six;  vo- 
cational guidance  for  three ;  open  air  schools  for  six ; 
psychological  clinic  for  one;  etc.  Many  local  needs 
suggested  are  so  fundamental  to  efficient  schools  that 
taxpayers  need  "  to  be  shown."  Yet  even  after 
demonstrations  have  been  completed  in  one  com- 
munity, they  are  needed  in  other  communities.  Be- 
cause cities  are  so  reluctant  to  learn  from  others'  ex- 
perience, local  demonstration  by  private  philan- 
thropy will  convince  100%  of  taxpayers  to  supply 
minimum  school  needs  through  taxation. 

To  meet  school  needs  that  are  nation  wide,  sug- 
gestions were  made  that  would  require  a  foundation 
with  combined  incomes  on  $20,000,000;  study  and 
publicity  as  to  school  problems;  pension  systems  for 
aged,  sick  or  infirm  teachers;  to  further  and  stand- 
ardize vocational  training ;  to  further  and  standard- 
ize medical  supervision  of  schools;  scholarships  for 
teachers  wishing  to  improve  their  efficiency;  and 
scholarships  for  poor  children  of  ability  compelled 
to  join  the  ranks  of  labor  without  even  high  school 
opportunities. 

In  three  years  only  five  school  men  asked  Mrs. 


232  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Harriman  for  gifts.  Neither  school  men  nor  com- 
munities have  generally  begun  yet  to  list  ways  in 
which  citizens  can  help  the  schools.  Nobody  has 
seriously  tried  to  picture  the  possibilities  of  cooper- 
ation between  philanthropy  and  public  schools  on  a 
national  scale, —  excepting,  of  course,  four  notable 
services  still  on  too  limited  a  scale :  the  child  hygiene 
division  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  the  Gen- 
eral Education  Board's  promotion  of  high  schools 
in  the  South,  the  propaganda  by  the  National  As- 
sociation for  Promoting  Industrial  Education,  and 
the  cooperative  Efficient  Citizenship  Bulletins  by 
the  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research. 

Returns  from  142  city  superintendents  show  — 

1.  Superintendents  when  they  stop  to  summarize 
find  long  lists  of  new  buildings,  new  equip- 
ment and  new  services  which  they  feel  their 
general  publics  are  not  yet  prepared  to  fur- 
nish but  which  their  children  sadly  need 

2*.  American  school  boards  and  taxpayers  learn 
more  readily  from  local  demonstrations  than 
from  reported  experience  of  other  school  sys- 
tems ;  hence  the  need  of  private  initiative  in 
demonstrating  advantages  or  disadvantages 
of  proposals 

3.  Many  cities   are  suffering  for  want  of  school 

facilities  which  smaller  and  poorer  cities  are 
providing  from  taxes 

4.  Many  school  needs  must  be  met  at  first  by  ef- 

fort outside  of  schools  rather  than  by  out- 
side gifts  to  schools 


r 

Tl 

i 

7/  "\ 

>\/ 

Lis 

H  \#I    -*»■* 

^tfl^ 

Loaned  by  Diocese  of  Harrisburg 


Picking  Coal 


From  photograph—  Great  Luke*  Minion, 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Mich. 

At  School — A  "Childless  Home" 


From  photoeraph— National  Child  Labor  Com. 
N.Y.  City 

Shucking  Oysters 


APPEALS   WITHOUT   WORDS 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  NEEDS  fttt 

5.  The  best  available  index  to  help  needed  outside 

of  schools  is  the  list  of  needs  disclosed  within 
schools 

6.  Superintendents   have   not   thus    far   generally 

thought  of  wills  and  private  gifts  as  poten- 
tial assets  for  public  schools ;  in  only  four 
of  142  cities  they  reported  that  will  makers 
remembered  the  public  schools 

7.  Givers  have  thus   far  overlooked  their  oppor- 

tunity to  help  without  hurting  through  gifts 
to  and  for  public  schools 

8.  Private   giving   is   apt  to  paralyze  public   re- 

sponsibility unless  private  gifts  are  confined 
to  purposes  "  not  possible  through  revenue 
obtained   from  ordinary  channels  " 

9.  The     school     report's     opportunity     to     show 

school  needs  so  as  to  enlist  private  giving 
and  public  support  has  not  yet  been  used 

After  reading  the  above  analysis  Mr.  Leonard  E. 
Opdycke,  the  business  man  who  financed  the  St. 
Louis  follow-up  cards  published  by  the  Bureau  of 
Municipal  Research  to  emphasize  significant  facts 
brought  out  at  the  St.  Louis  meeting  of  school  su- 
perintendents, 1912,  suggested  the  following  line 
"  between  private  aid  that  will  tend  to  diminish  ap- 
propriations and  private  aid  that  will  tend  to  foster 
such  appropriations :" 

"  Where  the  need  is  well  known  to  the  commu- 
nity, and  still  more  where  it  has  been  officially 
recognized,  surely  private  aid  ought  to  be 
sought  and  used  to  press  that  need  upon  the 
public  rather  than  to  secure  an  actual  demon- 


234  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

stration.  Examples  of  such  need  would  be  af- 
forded where,  for  any  but  insurmountable  ob- 
stacles, there  is  a  notorious  failure  to  appro- 
priate enough  money  to  do  high  class  tradi- 
tional school  work  or  to  maintain  specialties 
already  undertaken  with  success 

Where  on  the  other  hand  the  need  is  for  some- 
thing not  generally  appreciated  in  the  commu- 
nity, aid  for  demonstrative  purposes  is  obvi- 
ously '  indicated  ' 

Personally,  I  should  be  delighted  to  see  millions 
of  college  bequests  go  rather  in  aid  of  public 
school  work 

Sound  college  work  is  mostly  a  luxury 

Sound  school  work  is  a  national  necessity." 

Listing  needs  is  the  first  step  in  giving.  Listing 
will  show  that  school  men  and  philanthropists,  in- 
cluding taxpayers,  will  act  upon  one  another's  sug- 
gestions in  proportion  to  the  definiteness  and  con- 
tinuity of  the  opportunities  suggested  by  one  to 
the  other. 

Tentative  Outline  of  Argument  for  the  Establish- 
ment of  a  National  Fund  for  the  Promotion  of 
Efficiency  in  Public  School  Administration 

(Signed  by  Henry  Bruere,  Paul  H.  Hanus,  David  Snedden 
and  the  writer.) 

1909 

I.  America's  Schools  Deserve  Scientific  Attention 

America's  public  school  system  is  the  symbol  of 
Americanism  —  the  bulwark  of  democracy  — ■ 
America's  pride,  distinction  and  principal  asset 


A  NATIONAL  FUND  NEEDED         S80 

Dissatisfaction  with  the  present  results  of  Amer- 
ica's public  school  system  is  almost  as  universal 
as  enthusiasm  for  its  aims 

Leading  educators  and  public  men  declare  that 
America's  public  schools  are  not  now  giving  the 
necessary  preparation  for  industry,  citizenship 
and  home  life;  that  compulsory  education  is 
often  miseducation ;  that  while  American  in- 
dustrial methods  have  been  revolutionized 
within  fifty  years,  American  educational  meth- 
ods are  still  patterned  on  those  of  the  eight- 
eenth century 

II.  Present  Lack  of  Intelligent  Interest  in  Public 
Schools 

Dissatisfaction  with  present  educational  results 
and  criticism  of  present  educational  methods 
are  usually  based  upon  general  impression  and 
pedagogical  theory  rather  than  a  clear  analy- 
sis of  experience 

Remedies  are  likewise  based  upon  vague  impres- 
sions, the  general  disposition  being,  outside  as 
well  as  inside  school  systems,  to  gamble  with 
panaceas;  to  adopt  partially  worked  out  plans 
for  industrial  and  vocational  training;  to  ac- 
commodate courses  to  the  passing  fancy  rather 
than  to  the  permanent  interests  and  the  capaci- 
ties of  children 

Information  is  lacking  as  to  the  effect  of  elemen- 
tary education  upon  industrial  fitness  and  ad- 
vancement 

Practically  nobody  is  attempting  to  study  crit- 
ically and  scientifically  the  present  system  of 
school  administration  so  that  modifications  may 
be  based  upon  proof  of  its  defects;  upon  the 


236  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

experience  of  other  countries ;  upon  demonstra- 
tions by  technical  and  trade  schools  in  this 
country;  or  upon  analysis  of  the  industrial 
and  social  needs  of  individual  American  com- 
munities 

III.  Opportunity    for    a    Private    Benefaction    of 

National  Scope 

Discussions  of  educational  defects  are  more  apt 
to  impel  educational  bodies  supported  by  tax- 
payers into  ill  advised  experiments  than  into 
scientific  investigation 

To  learn  why,  where  and  in  how  far  American 
schools  are  not  fulfilling  their  mission,  and  to 
read  future  experience  for  the  prompt  benefit 
of  all  children  in  all  schools,  will  cost  more  than 
it  is  possible  for  existing  volunteer  agencies  to 
spend 

The  supreme  need  in  the  educational  field  is  for  a 
central  fund  to  lead  and  to  educate  both  the 
educator  and  the  general  public  to  differentiate 
between  fact  and  fancy,  the  desirable  and  the 
undesirable,  the  fruitful  and  the  futile  in  pub- 
lic education 

A  Foundation  for  the  Promotion  of  Efficiency  in 
Public  School  Administration  should  aim  to 
give  to  the  field  of  public  education,  wherever 
schools  fly  the  American  flag,  attention  such  as 
the  Carnegie  Institution  is  giving  to  science 
and  the  Carnegie  Foundation  is  giving  to  col- 
legiate instruction 

IV.  Constructive    Program     of    Cooperation     with 

Public  Schools 

1.  Original    investigation     (directly    supervised 


A  NATIONAL  FUND  NEEDED         237 

by  a  central  board  or  conducted  by  means 
of  grants)  as  to: 

a.  Effect  of  elementary  education  upon  in- 

dustrial fitness 

b.  Position     and     advancement     of     public 

school  graduates  in  industry 

c.  Relation  of  present  education  to  indus- 

trial occupations 

d.  Education    required    for    success    in    re- 

spective trades  and  industries 

e.  Effectiveness  of  commercial  education  to 

equip   for  commercial  service 

f.  Lessons    of    industrial    education    in    the 

south    for    elementary    and    secondary 
schools 

g.  Needs   of   rural    communities    and   rural 

schools 

h.  Preparation  required  in  primary  and 
grammar  grades  to  fit  pupils  for  con- 
tinuation and  industrial  schools 

i.  Differentiation  of  vocational  instruction 
for  sexes 

j.  America's  tests  of  various  kinds  of  indus- 
trial or  vocational  training  in  public 
day  schools  and  public  reform  schools 

k.  Causes  of  the  dropping  out  of  school 
after  the  fourth  grade 

1.  Present  education  for  physical  efficiency, 
—  housekeeping,  child  training,  per- 
sonal hygiene,  physical  culture 

m.  Present  education  in  public  morality, — 
civics,  municipal  problems,  elements  of 
economics 

n.  Use  of  present  investments  in  educa- 
tional plants  for  adult  education 


238  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

o.  Practicability  of  permeating  elementary 
and  industrial  education  with  the  aes- 
thetic motive 
p.  European    trade    and   industrial   schools 
q.  Part  time  arrangement  of  German  manu- 
facturers and  German  schools  by  which 
pupils  may  earn  wages  while  receiving 
instruction 
r.  Equipment    of    existing    state    and    city 
boards  of  education  to  organize  voca- 
tional training 
s.  Preparation    of    teachers    for    industrial 

and  vocational  training 
t.  Possibilities   and   present   restrictions   of 

the  national  bureau  of  education 
u.  Protection  of  health  of  school  children 
v.  Facts   obtainable   through  existing  pub- 
lic school  reports  as  to  educational  re- 
sults 
w.  Facts    as    to    present    organization    of 
school     boards,     school     management, 
raising  and  use  of  school  funds 
X.  Utilization   of  public   interest   organized 
through    voluntary    agencies    such    as 
the    National    Education    Association, 
National  Superintendents'  Association, 
local  and  state  public  education  associ- 
ations, parent-teacher  associations,  etc 
2.  Publicity  of  results  of  investigation  through 
special  *  monographs,     magazine      articles, 
press  notices  and  interviews 
S.  A   periodical    devoted   to    school    administra- 
tion,  with    special   reference   to    the    ascer- 
tained results  of  vocational  and  industrial 
training 


A  NATIONAL  FUND  NEEDED         *89 

4.  Special    bibliography    for   libraries    in   indus- 

trial communities 

5.  A  national  educational  museum 

6.  Central    and   traveling   educational    museums 

similar  to  the  printers'  museum  of  Paris, 
the  industrial  exhibits  of  Glasgow  and  Edin- 
burgh, and  the  department  of  visual  in- 
struction at  Albany 

7.  Grants  to  state  and  city  commissions  to  visit 

American  and  foreign  schools 

8.  Grants    for    the    encouragement    of    normal 

training  schools  and  special  summer  courses 
for  teachers  of  industrial  and  vocational 
subjects 

9.  Demonstrations  and  grants  that  will  encour- 

age the  establishment  of  state  and  district 
or  country  schools  of  agriculture  for  chil- 
dren not  able  to  prepare  for  the  present 
agricultural  colleges  for  advanced  students 

10.  Demonstration   and   grants  that  will  encour- 

age schools  and  manufacturers  to  cooperate 
in  a  part  time  plan  by  which  instruction 
shall  be  given  to  beginners  in  trades 

11.  Grants    to    state    commissions    on    industrial 

education  or  to  state  boards  of  education 
conditioned  upon  taking  certain  definite 
steps  to  increase  efficiency  of  primary  and 
secondary  schools 

12.  Grants  to  cities  and  states  for  investigation 

into  and  reports  on  educational  efficiency 
by  experts  not  connected  with  the  schools 
under  investigation,  with  special  reference 
to  the  training,  qualifications,  demonstrable 
results  of  teaching  staff,  and  the  training, 
qualifications  and  helpfulness  of  the  super- 


240  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

visory  force  provided  by  city,  county  or 
state 

13.  Grants  to  official  and  non-official  agencies  or- 

ganized to  obtain  information  with  regard 
to  school  efficiency 

14.  Grants  or  scholarships  to  enable  teachers  do- 

ing meritorious  work  to  visit  schools  or  to 
attend  normal  training  schools  or  universi- 
ties giving  special  courses  capable  of  local 
application 

15.  Annual  conferences  on  special  subjects  bear- 

ing upon  educational  efficiency ;  attendance 
of  experts  to  be  encouraged  by  grants ; 
numbers  to  be  kept  within  the  limits  of  ef- 
fective discussion 

16.  Correspondence   bureau   to   encourage   letters 

of  inquiry  and  to  follow  up  suggestions 

V.  Proposed  Organization  of  Central  Fund 

1.  Legislative  body  responsible  to  the  public 

a.  Board  consisting  of  representatives  of 
different  angles  of  approach  to  the 
educational  problem, —  commerce,  la- 
bor, public  schools,  higher  education, 
manufacturing,    public    administration 

2.  Administrative  body  responsible  to  the  gen- 

eral managing  board 

a.  Executive  director  or  secretary  or  chair- 

man or  president,  with 

b.  Associate  directors  of  high  capacity,  re- 

sponsible for  policy 

c.  Consulting  board  representing  each  state 

3.  Field  force 

a.  Expert   investigators    and   supervisors 

b.  Assistants,  regular  and  special,  as  emer- 

gency requires 


1911 

Letter  to  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr., 
re  White  Slave  Evil 

If  one  were  really  going  in  for  the  education  of 
the  American  public  with  respect  to  this  evil,  I 
should  venture  to  suggest  certain  lines  of  activity 
that  would  be  immediately  practicable.  There  are 
two  problems,  one  to  ascertain  information  not  yet 
available,  the  other  to  make  effective,  cumulative  use 
of  information  already  available. 

That  which  is  not  yet  known  and  which  it  is  most 
important  to  find  out  relates  primarily,  in  my  judg- 
ment, not  to  the  traffic  itself  but  to  its  alliance  with 
government  agencies,  such  as  police  departments, 
magistrates'  courts,  prison,  parole,  etc.     .     .     . 

One  could  easily  spend  a  million  dollars  on  cir- 
culating the  truths  contained  in  Mr.  Roe's  book  and 
still  a  handful  of  white  slave  traffickers,  with  the 
background  of  the  present  inefficient,  incompetent 
and  irresponsible  police  departments  and  govern- 
ments, can  beat  you  at  the  game. 

As  to  progressive  cumulative  use  of  information 
already  obtained,  several  things  occur  to  me  which 
could  be  done  right  away  so  as  to  utilize  existing 
agencies. 

May  I  preface  my  suggestions  by  recalling  an  in- 
cident which  I  believe  relates  to  you  as  well  as  to 
me?     I    was    a    petit    juror    about    six    years    ago 

handling  cases  which,  as  I  remember,  were  sent  to 

241 


242  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

us  by  a  grand  jury  of  which  you  were  a  member. 
Among  the  cases  was  one  which  startled  me  at  the 
time,  enough  so  that  I  used  it  for  illustration  in 
Efficient  Democracy:  a  girl  of  sixteen  was  sen- 
tenced to  two  years  for  having  stolen  fifty  cents ;  a 
woman  of  forty  was  given  two  years  for  having  "  con- 
verted," to  quote  the  District  Attorney,  "  brunettes 
into  peroxide  blondes  and  confining  them  in  a 
brothel."  I  remember  that  the  judge,  in  sentencing 
that  woman,  told  her  he  was  lenient  because  she 
changed  her  plea  from  not  guilty  to  guilty,  and 
had  thus  saved  the  state  the  cost  of  trial. 

1.  My  first  suggestion  is  that  somebody  be 
started  at  once  looking  over  the  dockets  of  our 
courts  to  see,  say  for  five  years  or  ten  years,  how 
many  of  these  cases  came  into  court,  how  many  were 
discharged  without  trial,  how  many  were  fined  only, 
how  many  received  suspended  sentences,  how  many 
were  put  on  probation,  how  many  were  sentenced 
to  the  penitentiary  or  prison,  and  how  and  when 
they  were  paroled. 

2.  Why  not  start  a  postal  card  campaign  to 
mayors,  police  heads,  newspapers,  school  superin- 
tendents, heads  of  civic  organizations,  professors 
of  psychology  and  economics,  citing  one  case  after 
another  from  Roe's  book,  and  asking  questions  cal- 
culated to  stimulate  local  inquiry? 

3.  Why  not  take  a  page  in  the  Survey,  for  ex- 
ample, for  six  months  to  test  the  effect  of  repeated 
appeals   to  its  social  worker  clientele,  giving  them 


A  NATIONAL  FUND  NEEDED 

definite    tilings    to    do    in    their    own    communities? 

4.  Why  not  try  a  similar  experiment  in  one  of 
the  principal  organs  that  go  to  school  men? 

5.  Why  not  start  at  once  to  learn  what  national 
organizations  are  doing  and  can  be  persuaded  to  do, 
such  as  the  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  W.  C. 
T.  U.,  etc? 

6.  Why  not  try  the  chief  normal  schools  of  the 
larger  states? 

7.  If  I  had  this  problem  and  had  the  money  too, 
there  are  teachers  and  lecturers  whom  I  should  sub- 
sidize or  underwrite  for  five  years  to  organize  lec- 
ture work  and  correspondence  among  women's  clubs 
and  school  men. 

8.  I  should  at  least  consider  attempting  to  secure 
a  place  on  the  program  at  the  National  Education 
Association  meeting  in  Los  Angeles.  This  is  prob- 
ably the  last  year  for  a  long  time  when  such  a  sub- 
ject can  be  treated,  but  I  think  Superintendent  Ella 
Flagg  Young,  who  is  the  president,  would  make 
place. 

9.  I  should  certainly  want  to  learn  how  Arthur 
Brisbane,  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox,  Dorothy  Dix,  Mr. 
Bok  and  Mr.  Lorrimer  of  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post  feel  on  this  subject,  and  take  up  with  them 
methods  of  presenting  the  facts  which  can  be  pre- 
sented through  their  various  organs. 

The  Cigarette  Invasion  a  Men- 
ace to  America.     An  Appeal 
tc  American  Manhood 


Efficiency   Tests   for   Will   Making 

One  day  the  president  of  an  organization  tele- 
phoned me  to  send  a  report  to  a  certain  lawyer, 
who  had  told  him  that  he  was  drawing  a  will  to 
make  provision  for  public  bequests  totaling  $3,- 
000,000.  I  was  instructed  to  send  a  formal  letter 
transmitting  a  report  of  200  pages  describing  a 
society's  work.  Is  there  any  other  business  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  that  would  treat  a  prospective 
three  million  dollar  bargain  so  casually  and  for- 
mally ? 

On  the  other  hand,  is  there  any  other  business  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  but  will  making  in  which  a  man 
wishing  to  invest  $3,000,000  will  limit  his  inquiries 
to  the  "  interested  "  men  whom  he  happens  to  know? 
Why  should  not  a  man  planning  to  donate  $3,000,- 
000  spend  $1,000  in  advertising  for  suggestions  as 
we  obtained  for  $25  suggestions  from  school  super- 
intendents (page  230)  requiring  nearly  $3,000,000? 

The  only  answer  is  that  in  the  past  a  man  known 
to  wish  suggestions  could  not  avoid  importunities 
and  burdensome  visits  from,  friends,  while  anony- 
mous advertising  never  occurred  to  him. 

The  proposed  clearing  house  (page  279)  would 
make  it  easy  for  givers  to  take  the  time,  without  an- 
noyance, for  considering  various  alternatives,  while 
the  existence  of  the  clearing  house  and  the  intelli- 

244 


TESTS  FOR  WILL  MAKING  245 

gent  handling  of  mail  would  take  the  place  of  paid 
advertising.  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  has  several 
times  asked  his  friends  for  suggestions  as  to  out- 
standing opportunities. 

When  asked  whether  it  would  be  necessary  for  us 
to  include  will  making  in  the  book  on  efficient  giv- 
ing, I  answered  that  I  believed  the  country  could 
make  little  headway  toward  efficient  giving  until  it 
had  thought  out  and  agreed  upon  a  minimum  of 
efficiency  that  might  reasonably  be  expected  of  rea- 
sonably intelligent  men  and  women  when  making 
their  wills. 

Of  6,000  appeals  not  one  asked  to  be  included  in 
Mrs.  Harriman's  will,  although  one  college  sent  a 
booklet,  Have  you  Made  your  Will?  So  far  as 
agencies  have  refrained  from  referring  to  will  mak- 
ing from  motives  of  delicacy  or  from  preference  for 
an  immediate  gift,  however  small,  over  a  large  gift 
deferred,  their  appealing  may  be  considered  effi- 
cient. So  far  on  the  other  hand  as  the  mention  of 
will  making  has  been  omitted  from  these  letters  be- 
cause of  failure  to  think  of  it,  inefficient  appealing 
is  indicated. 

Motives  of  delicacy  will  always  make  it  somewhat 
more  difficult  to  ask  to  be  included  in  a  man's  will 
than  to  ask  for  a  money  contribution.  There  is 
something  a  trifle  funereal  in  the  suggestion  that  a 
man  or  woman  ought  to  work  out  the  details  of  his 
last  will  and  testament.  But  any  man  who  is  go- 
ing to  take  money   away  from  his  family  or  away 


246  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

from  industry  for  so  called  public  purposes  should 
at  least  try  to  look  impersonally  and  dispassionately 
at  the  problem  of  giving  that  money  in  a  way  that 
will  help,  not  hurt. 

Mr.  Harriman  never  gave  to  agencies  which  he 
had  not  known.  This  attitude  on  the  part  of  giv- 
ers is  often  severely  criticised.  Yet  by  and  large  it 
is  probably  better  that  a  rich  man  should  leave 
nothing  behind  him  but  working  capital  than  that 
he  should  divert  money  from  industry  to  agencies 
whose  work  he  does  not  understand.  No  man  ought 
to  leave  a  dying  gift  of  $100,000  to  anything  for 
which  he  has  only  a  $10  living  conviction. 

Few  uses  of  money  can  help  so  many  people  as 
keeping  it  usefully  employed  in  the  current  of  busi- 
ness. The  presumption  is  against  deflecting  any 
parts  of  that  current.  This  presumption  should  be 
overcome  only  by  facts.  Emotional  giving  is  a  poor 
substitute  for  efficient  business  use  of  others'  labor. 
Yet  emotional  giving  by  one  living  amidst  and  sub- 
ject to  facts  and  appeals  from  many  agencies  will 
do  more  good  than  giving  through  a  will  to  a  cause 
of  momentary  or  no  interest.  Will  making  will  be 
more  enjoyable  and  more  efficient  if  public  thought 
about  giving  is  standardized  and  universalized. 

Apart  from  31  rights  mentioned  in  the  Magna 
Chart  a  for  Givers,  Part  IV,  the  following  points 
should  be  kept  in  mind: 

1.  Surprisingly    few   men    of   wealth   now   make 
public  bequests.     Of  $270,000,000  given  in 


TESTS  FOR  WILL  MAKING  247 

1911  in  large  gifts  only  $30,635,647  was 
willed 

2.  If  not  subjected  to  systematic   education   in 

giving,  the  passing  generation,  so  far  as  it 
bequeaths  money  to  public  causes,  tends  to 
bequeath  it  to  causes  dominant  in  its  youth 
or  early  prime 

3.  People  tend  to  will  up  to  their  environment 

just  as  they  tend  to  live  up  to  their  environ- 
ment. Conversely,  they  tend  to  will  down 
to  the  public  expectation  of  them.  Will 
making  is  a  reflection  of  thinking  and  say- 
ing and  doing.  What  each  of  us  says  and 
thinks  and  does  depends  largely  upon  what 
people  around  us  are  doing  and  saying. 
When  a  man  sits  down  to  make  his  will  it 
is  too  late  to  accomplish  much  with  him 
because  then  he  will  act,  as  a  rule,  con- 
sistently with  the  indifference  or  the  in- 
telligence with  which  he  has  been  consider- 
ing public  questions  and  his  own  responsi- 
bility for  10  or  25  years  previous 

4.  Each  or  all  of  the  seven   motives  mentioned 

on  page  162  may  express  themselves  in  will 
making  as  follows:  (a)  desire  to  perpetu- 
ate interest  in  a  particular  work  or  a  par- 
ticular class  of  sufferer;  (b)  desire  to 
please  a  friend;  (c)  desire  to  avoid  post 
mortem  censure;  (d)  desire  to  be  called 
public  spirited;  (e)  desire  to  establish  a 
memorial  for  one's  self  or  a  relative;  (f) 
desire  to  do  the  fair  thing  by  the  com- 
munity that  protected  him  and  furnished 
opportunity  for  making  his  fortune;  (g) 
desire  to  help  where  suffering  or  need  or 
opportunity    receives     least    attention      (A 


248  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

friend  criticised  this  list  because  it  "  prac- 
tically omits  the  element  of  devotion."  I 
replied  that  "  devotion  "  was  not  an  eighth 
element,  but,  when  existing,  was  an  integral 
part  of  one  or  more  of  all  other  motives) 

5.  No  legacy  should  be  restricted  as  to  purpose 

beyond  20 'years;  the  New  York  Associa- 
tion for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor  accepted  the  Caroline  Rest  Endow- 
ment on  condition  that  it  should  be  free  to 
use  the  money  for  any  other  purpose  after 
10  years 

6.  If  temporary  restrictions  are  to  be  imposed, 

money  should  be  given  to  the  least  popular 
rather  than  to  the  most  popular  aspect  of 
a  beneficiary's  work.  A  relief  society  needs 
its  need  for  coal  quite  as  much  as  the  coal; 
to  relieve  it  of  the  appealing  power  that 
grows  out  of  this  need  may  reduce  its  total 
contributions  by  many  times  the  value  of 
the  coal.  Everywhere  cost  of  appealing 
and  managing  is  a  handicap  and  a  suitable 
object  for  will  making 

7.  Unrestricted   legacies    should   be   given   upon 

condition  that  an  annual  accounting  in  de- 
tail be  made  for  use  of  income  and  principal 

8.  Holding  the  principal  intact  and  permitting 

the  use  of  income  only  for  a  term  of  years 
will  generally  be  more  helpful  to  the  bene- 
ficiary than  an  entirely  unrestricted  legacy 

9.  Societies  that  pray  for  bequests  may  accus- 

tom will  makers   to   demand   statements   of 
fact  rather  than  personal  preference  when 
asking  for  advice 
10.  A  list  of  alternatives  should  always  be  avail- 
able for  givers  and  advisers ;  hence  the  need 


TESTS  FOR  WILL  MAKING  249 

for  local  clearing  houses  to  do  on  a  small 
scale  what  is  outlined  on  pages  282  to  292 

11.  A  consolidated  statement  of  community  needs 

not  yet  met  should  be  advertised  by  per- 
haps such  cooperation  among  benevolent 
agencies  as  when  business  men  in  a  city 
unite  to  advertise  their  city's  attractions 
or  the  opening  of  its  season 

12.  Every  city  needs  experts  on  will  making,  not 

only  to  draft  unbreakable  wills  but  to  sub- 
mit  unquestionable  needs 

13.  There  is  room   for  a  new  profession  of  con- 

sulting experts  on  will  making  and  on  large 
giving 

14.  Whether   this   service   begins   with   some   cen- 

tral benevolent  agency,  with  an  ex-secre- 
tary of  a  benevolent  agency  or  with  some 
prominent  legal  office,  is  immaterial.  In 
any  case  it  will  soon  prove  its  worth,  and 
if  efficiently  begun  will  become  as  indis- 
pensable to  will  making  and  giving  as  re- 
insurance among  fire  underwriters  or  con- 
sultations among  doctors  for  emergency 
cases 

15.  A  Magna  Charta  for  givers  should  be  widely 

disseminated  as  part  of  the  educational 
work  of  every  benevolent  agency  and  every 
enlightened  public  spirited  editor 

16.  Endowed    brains    can    adapt    themselves    to 

changing  needs  which  brick  and  mortar  find 
it  next  to  impossible  to  do 

17.  State  laws  should  make  it  easier  for  trustees 

of  funds  no  longer  needed,  to  transfer  such 
funds  to  purposes  which  will  promote  the 
public  weal.  It  might  even  be  desirable 
for  states  to  provide  for  the  automatic  ex- 


250  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

animation  of  all  trust  funds  at  the  end  of 
every  18  years,  and  two  years'  notice  of 
discontinuance  for  such  funds  as  are  no 
longer  serving  a  public  purpose,  the  funds 
to  revert  to  the  public  unless  applied  to 
public  betterment  purposes  approved  by 
the  state  authority 
18.  Wills  might  profitably  ask  the  state  or  mu- 
nicipality —  through  an  executive  or  court 
or  committee  to  be  appointed  by  executive 
or  court  —  to  reassign  for  periods  of  5  or 
10  or  20  years  what  remains  of  restricted 
or  unrestricted  legacies  after  the  expira- 
tion of  5,  10  or  20  years 

The  above  list  of  suggestions  will  seem  too  short 
to  many  men  and  women  who  have  seriously  consid- 
ered will  making  and  the  problems  it  creates  and 
helps  to  solve.  Free  discussion  will  clear  the  at- 
mosphere. I  hope  many  of  my  readers  will  care  to 
write  me  suggestions  and  criticisms.  Two  questions 
and  a  proposition  I  want  to  add  tentatively: 

Question  1 :  Will  not  some  testators  and  donors 
experiment  with  alternating  endowments ;  that  is, 
income  to  go>  to  one  agency  for  10  years,  to  be 
passed  to  a  second  for  10  years,  either  to  return 
to  the  first  or  to  go  to  a  third  for  the  next  10  years 
and  thereafter  to  be  reassigned  by  state  or  munici- 
pal authority?  For  some  kinds  of  work  15  or  20 
years  would  be  a  better  limit  than  10  years. 

Question  2:  Will  not  some  testators  and  donors 
consider  the  advisability  of  giving  to  institutions 
during  the  minority  of  personal  heirs  the  income  on 


TESTS  FOR  WILL  MAKING  251 

funds  held  for  such  heirs,  just  as  annuities  are  now 
often  given  to  employees  or  relatives  during  their 
life  time,  to  revert  to  the  administering  institution 
upon  the  death  of  annuitants? 

The  proposition  for  discussion :  Mr.  Julius  Ros- 
enwald  of  Chicago  proposed  to  the  National  Con- 
gress of  Jewish  Charities  in  June,  1912,  that  no  gift 
or  bequest  should  be  permitted  to  last  longer  than 
20  years  on  the  three  grounds  (1)  that  no  man 
can  see  farther  than  20  years  ahead ;  (2)  that  pos- 
terity has  a  right  to  problems;  and  (3)  that  per- 
petual endowment  often  creates  problems.  Promi- 
nent givers  and  appealers  have  seconded  his  sug- 
gestion. 

As  between  perpetual  reservations  of  endowments 
and  this  20  year  annuity  plan,  the  probability  is 
that  the  annuity  woujd  lend  itself  less  easily  to  re- 
actionary or  harmful  uses.  It  would  at  least  be 
apt  to  put  a  stop  to  gifts  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
or  millions  to  single  institutions.  But  such  arbi- 
trary compulsion  might  easily  encourage  riotous  liv- 
ing and  false  moves  that  would  do  more  harm  than 
the  most  conservative  dead  hand.  Certainly  the 
proposal  should  be  modified  so  that  the  beneficiary 
society  shall  not  actually  be  compelled  to  spend  one 
twentieth  of  the  legacy  each  year.  Whether  large 
or  small,  few  legacies  divide  themselves  into  20  parts 
of  the  right  size  for  spending  efficiently  either  in 
current  expenses  or  for  permanent  improvements. 
Several  institutions  received  from  Mr.  John  S.  Ken- 


252  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

nedy  $1,500,000.  To  have  compelled  those  insti- 
tutions to  spend  $75,000  of  their  capital  each  year 
would,  in  practically  every  instance,  have  forced  ex- 
travagance or  compelled  those  agencies  to  stop  or 
reduce  efforts  to  secure  current  support. 

Nor  can  I  see  that  it  is  practical  to  distinguish 
between  very  large  gifts  and  a  large  number  of 
small  gifts  which  make  up  a  large  amount.  For 
example,  it  was  proposed  that  the  Rockefeller  Foun- 
dation be  limited  to  $100,000,000  and  that  its  cap- 
ital and  interest  be  wiped  out  within  100  years.  A 
$10,000,000  foundation  inefficiently  administered 
will  easily  do  more  harm  than  a  $100,000,000  foun- 
dation efficiently  managed.  Society's  best  protec- 
tion, I  believe,  is  not  in  drawing  arbitrary  lines  as 
to  the  life  or  amount  of  legacies  but  in  requiring 
annual  public  accounting  for  all  trust  funds  and 
state  supervision  as  above  suggested. 

Benjamin  Franklin's  Idea  of  Will  Making 

One  of  the  most  notable  wills  made  by  any  Ameri- 
can was  that  of  Benjamin  Franklin  which  is  re- 
printed as  Document  95  — 1897,  City  of  Boston. 
Personal  gifts  were  made  to  relatives,  friends,  scien- 
tific societies  and  to  "  my  Friend  and  the  Friend  of 
Mankind,  General  Washington  ",  —  money,  houses, 
lands,  bad  debts,  books,  manuscript,  "  my  fine  Crab- 
tree  Walking  Stick  with  a  Gold  Head  curiously 
wrought  in  the  Form  of  the  Cap  of  Liberty  ",  gold 
watch,  "  the  Botanic  Description  of  the  Plants  in 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN'S  WILL       253 

the  Emperor's  Garden  at  Vienna,  in  folio  with  Col- 
oured Cuts ",  "  Set  of  Spectators,  Tatlers  and 
Guardians  handsomely  bound ",  etc.  He  mentions 
large  gifts  already  made  to  schools,  colleges,  build- 
ing of  churches,  etc. 

Because  he  owed  his  "  first  Instructions  in  Litera- 
ture to  the  free  Grammar  Schools  "  of  Boston  he 
left  £100  to  be  put  out  to  interest  and  so  continued 
at  interest  forever,  "  which  Interest  annually  shall 
be  laid  out  in  Silver  Medals,  and  given  as  honorary 
Rewards  annually  by  the  Directors  of  the  said  Free 
Schools  for  the  encouragement  of  scholarship 
.  .  .  in  such  manner  as  to  the  Discretion  of  the 
Select  Men  of  the  said  Town  shall  seem  meet." 

After  providing  £2,000  "  to  be  employed  for  mak- 
ing the  River  Schuylkill  Navigable "  he  later 
changed  his  mind  in  his  will  because  "  such  a  Sum 
will  do  but  little  Toward  Accomplishing  such  a 
Work  and  .  .  .  the  project  is  not  likely  to  be 
undertaken  for  many  years  to  come  "  so  he  devoted 
the  £2,000  to  "  another  Idea,  that  I  hope  may  be 
more  extensively  useful." 

Feeling  himself  under  obligation  to  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  "  for  having  unasked  appointed  me 
formerly  their  Agent  in  England  with  a  handsome 
Salary  .  .  ."  and  because  he  "  considered  that 
among  Artisans  good  Apprentices  are  most  likely 
to  make  good  Citizens,  and  having  myself  been  bred 
to  a  manual  Art  Printing,  in  my  native  Town,  and 
afterwards  assisted  to  set  up  my  business  in  Phila- 


254  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

delphia  by  kind  loan  of  Money  from  two  Friends 
there,  which  was  the  foundation  of  my  Fortune,  and 
of  all  the  utility  in  life  that  may  be  ascribed  to  me, 
I  wish  to  be  useful  even  after  my  Death  if  possible, 
in  forming  and  advancing  other  young  men  that 
may  be  serviceable  to  their  Country  in  both  those 
Towns,"  he  gave  $10,000  each  to  be  loaned  out  at 
5%  interest  in  sums  not  more  than  $300  or  less 
than  $75  to  "  young  married  artificers  under  the 
Age  of  twenty  five  years,  as  have  served  an  Appren- 
ticeship .  .  .  and  faithfully  fulfilled  the  Duties 
required  in  their  Indentures,  so  as  to  obtain  a  good 
moral  Character  from  at  least  two  respectable 
Citizens,  who  are  willing  to  become  their  Sureties  in 
a  Bond  with  the  applicants  for  the  Repayment  of 
the  Monies  so  lent  with  Interest     .     .     ." 

"  The  Principal  and  Interest  so  paid  back  by  Bor- 
rowers shall  be  again  let  out  to  fresh  Borrowers." 

He  "  hoped  ...  no  part  of  the  Money  to 
at  any  time  lie  dead  or  be  diverted  to  other  pur- 
poses." 

If  the  funds  should  become  "  more  than  the  oc- 
casions in  Boston  shall  require  "  then  other  Towns 
in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  were  to  benefit.  In 
a  bound  book  should  be  kept  the  name  of  each  ap- 
plicant, the  names  of  those  who  applied  for  and  re- 
ceived benefits  and  their  sureties,  sum  loaned,  the 
dates,  "  and  other  necessary  and  proper  records  re- 
specting the  business  concerns  of  this  institution." 
What  a  pity  that  he  did  not  incorporate  his  own 


FRANKLIN'S  WILL  SUGGESTIVE     255 

idea  of  what  constituted  other  necessary  and  proper 
records. 

Loans  should  be  repaid  with  interest  plus  one 
tenth  of  the  principal  each  year  to  make  the  repay- 
ment of  the  principal  borrowed  more  easy. 

Franklin  calculated  that  his  fund  of  £2,000  would 
in  100  years  grow  into  £131,000.  Of  this  amount 
£31,000  was  to  be  continued  for  loaning  for  another 
100  years,  when  "  not  'presuming  to  carry  my  views 
farther  "  he  calculated  the  remaining  amount  would 
increase  to  £4,061,000  of  which  £1,061,000  should 
go  without  restriction  to  Boston  and  £3,000,000 
to  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  100  years  there  was  to  be 
laid  out  at  the  discretion  of  managers  of  the  town 
of  Boston  £100,000  in  "  Public  Works  which  may  be 
judged  of  most  general  utility  to  the  inhabitants 
such  as  Fortifications,  Bridges,  Aqueducts,  Public 
Buildings,  Baths,  Pavements  or  whatever  may  make 
living  in  the  Town  more  Convenient  to  its  People 
and  render  it  more  agreeable  to  Strangers,  resort- 
ing thither  for  Health  or  a  temporary  residence." 
Boston  used  its  discretion  and  built  a  Franklin  In- 
dustrial School,  Franklin  Trades  School  —  called 
Franklin  Union  —  containing  24  classrooms,  six 
draughting  rooms  and  accommodating  about  1,700 
students  —  the  available  balance  being  not  $500,- 
000,  as  expected  by  Franklin,  but  $329,300.48. 
The  remaining  Franklin  Fund  for  artificers,  which 
will   be   distributed   between   the   state   and   city    in 


256  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

1991,  amounted  on  January  31,  1911,  to  $200,- 
628.78. 

Philadelphia's  £2,000  was  to  be  used  for  artificers 
and  then  used  to  bring  "  by  pipes  the  Water  of 
Wissahickon  Creek  into  the  Town."  This  was  rec- 
ommended, not  directed,  to  be  done  only  "  if  not 
done  before."  At  the  end  of  the  second  100  years 
the  fortune  estimated  at  £4,061,000  was  to  be  di- 
vided between  Philadelphia  and  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Philadelphia  distributed  $133,076.46  in 
1908  compared  with  Boston's  $329,300.48,  and  be- 
gan the  second  100  years  with  $44,800  compared 
with  Boston's  $200,628.78. 

Recent  reports  of  city  trusts  in  Philadelphia 
read :  "  The  Franklin  Fund  is  as  last  year,  no 
loans  having  been  applied  for." 

Giving  Directly  to  Public  Treasuries 

Philadelphia  and  Boston  are  not  alone  in  having 
trust  funds  left  for  various  purposes  to  be  adminis- 
tered by  the  public  through  officially  appointed 
trustees.  For  a  list  of  such  funds  in  159  cities  see 
the  report  of  the  United  States  Census  Statistics 
of  Cities,  1908.  Whatever  will  explain  why  offi- 
cially appointed  trustees  earned  for  Philadelphia 
from  Benjamin  Franklin's  gift  $200,000  less  than 
Boston's  trustees  earned  from  the  same  amount 
put  at  interest  at  the  same  time  will  be  far  on  the 
road  to  explaining  other  ways  in  which  Philadel- 
phia's civic  interest,  schools,  government  and  philan- 


GIVING  TO  PUBLIC  TREASURIES      257 

thropy  have,  like  the  Franklin  fund,  "  lain  idle  or 
been  diverted."  It  was  Philadelphia's  use  of  vari- 
ous trust  funds  that  prompted  one  earnest  student 
of  public  needs  to  coin  the  expression  "  unimagina- 
tive giving." 

Unless  there  is  a  way  of  imposing  conditions 
which  will  encourage  if  not  compel  imagination  in 
the  use  of  trust  funds  given  directly  to  public  treas- 
uries, it  would  probably  be  well  to  prohibit  such 
gifts.  It  certainly  would  be  less  mortifying  to  pro- 
hibit them  than  to  be  compelled,  as  several  states 
have  been,  to  pass  laws  prohibiting  cities  from  con- 
suming the  capital  of  trust  funds  and  pledging  per- 
petual annual  tax  necessary  to  pay  the  rightful 
income  on  such  funds.  An  interesting  discussion  of 
this  practice  which  makes  a  perpetual  burden  of 
what  was  intended  to  be  a  perpetual  benefit  is  made 
in  Municipal  Bulletin  No  4,  published  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts bureau  of  statistics,  March,  1911. 

New  York  City  has  thus  far  only  two  such  trust 
funds.  Until  quite  recently  nobody  had  paid  much 
attention  to  their  existence  or  purpose.  We  would 
have  been  just  as  well  off,  perhaps  better  off,  if 
the  money  had  been  given  in  instalments  to  every 
hundredth  man  who  crossed  City  Hall  Park. 

The  trouble  with  this  giving  has  been  not  that 
the  trustees  were  appointed  by  public  officials,  but 
that  the  funds  were  left  in  the  way  the  Kennedy  mil- 
lions were  given  to  private  institutions, —  without 
restriction    or    need    for    annual    accounting.     The 


258  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

method  suggested  elsewhere  might  and  should  have 
been  employed  to  compel  imaginative  giving,  to  com- 
pel gifts  adapted  to  current  and  pressing  needs,  to 
compel  a  policy  that  will  grow  with  the  community's 
knowledge  of  needs  and  prevent  the  use  of  private 
gifts,  unless  so  specified,  in  ways  that  will  relieve  the 
public  of  obvious,  recognized  duties  and  to  insure 
annual  comparison  of  each  fund's  opportunity  with 
its  conduct  and  achievements. 

Humanizing  Institutions 

The  effect  of  appealing  upon  those  who  do  not 
respond  to  it  directly  is  greater  in  almost  all  in- 
stances, and  is  apt  to  be  more  helpful,  than  the 
effect  of  an  appeal  upon  those  who  do  respond. 
The  direct  replies  bring  gifts  to  (or  drive  away 
from)  private  remedial  agencies  ;  the  indirect  response 
brings  thousands  more  to  (or  drives  away  from) 
other  private  remedial  and  preventive  agencies,  plus 
millions  to  public  agencies  supported  by  taxes. 

Because  appealing  for  private  benevolences  either 
retards  or  hastens  the  assumption  of  duties  and  ex- 
penditures by  the  whole  public,  it  is  a  heavy  re- 
sponsibility which  rests  upon  every  appealer. 

No  appeal  is  successful  which  does  not  make  the 
recipient  want  to  give  to  something;  no  appeal  is 
successful  which  does  not  make  the  recipient  want 
to  be  a  better  and  more  efficient  citizen. 

Responding  to  an  appeal  ought  not  to  take  the 
place  of  doing  one's  share  as  a  citizen.     Every  ap- 


HUMANIZING  INSTITUTIONS         *58 

peal  should  help  straight  thinking  about  one's  rela- 
tion to  the  problem  immediately  concerned,  to  the 
public  of  which  readers  are  a  part,  and  to  the  ma- 
chinery through  which  that  public  works. 

Where  charity  work  is  put  off  in  a  pocket  by  it- 
self and  not  consciously  related  to  general  com- 
munity problems,  the  work  itself  is  apt  to  militate 
against  charity  and  the  charity  worker  is  apt  to 
become  uncharitable.  Have  you  ever  noticed  that 
men  and  women  receiving  good  salaries  as  profes- 
sional uplifters  are  not  expected  by  themselves  or 
others  to  contribute  to  uplift  work?  Have  you  ever 
noticed  how  many  trustees  of  charitable  institutions 
feel  that  giving  an  occasional  hour  or  half  hour  re- 
lieves them  of  responsibility  for  giving  even  to  the 
societies  for  which  they  are  appealing? 

A  sensitive  college  girl  who  went  into  social  work 
because  of  her  ideals  of  self  sacrifice  told  me  that 
the  coldest  atmosphere  she  had  ever  found  was  that 
of  the  benevolent  atmosphere  in  which  she  worked. 

When  I  rebuked  a  new  elevator  man  for  taking 
me  beyond  my  floor,  although  he  had  been  in  his 
place  for  nearly  ten  days,  he  wheeled  around,  partly 
in  self  defense  and  partly  in  indignation,  and  said 
that  he  had  never  in  his  life  been  in  a  building 
where  an  elevator  man  had  so  poor  a  show  .  .  . 
in  every  other,  building  he  had  ever  been  in  people 
would  say  "  good  morning  "  and  "  good  night  "; 
would  look  at  him  recognizing  him  as  a  human  be- 
ing and  let  Mm  see  who  they  were.     He  had  been  in 


260  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

that  uplift  building  ten  days  and  instead  of  saying 
"  good  morning  "  they  had  rather  seemed  to  resent 
his  presence  in  the  elevator  and  had  given  him  "  no 
show  to  find  out  where  they  belonged." 

In  many  parish  houses,  social  settlements,  hos- 
pital offices,  etc,  guests  and  new  workers  have  rea- 
son to  express  wonder  that  people  devoting  their 
lives  to  the  socializing  of  anti-social  districts  have 
so  little  social  spirit  among  themselves.  The  Post- 
graduate Hospital  in  New  York  recently  received  a 
bequest  of  $3,000,000  as  an  expression  of  a  man's 
surprise  and  satisfaction  because  of  courteous, 
friendly  treatment  when  he  was  simply  asking  ques- 
tions. 

I  had  an  experience  in  three  social  settlements  in 
Europe  which  illustrates  the  need  for  keeping  "  in 
tune  with  the  universe  "  while  doing  specialized  so- 
cial service.  On  visiting  the  first  settlement  near 
my  lodging,  I  was  invited  to  make  it  my  home  dur- 
ing the  several  weeks  to  be  spent  in  this  foreign 
city.  While  waiting  for  the  invitation  to  be  con- 
firmed in  writing,  I  presented  letters  of  introduction 
to  the  heads  of  two  other  settlements ;  one  was  so 
insistent  about  his  indebtedness  to  those  who  had  in- 
troduced me  that  I  accepted  an  invitation  to  stay 
(to  pay  board)  at  his  house  instead  of  at  the  first 
house  which  invited  me;  the  other  had  been  enter- 
tained and  feted  for  weeks  by  my  American  friends. 
When  I  accepted  his  written  invitation  to  spend  the 
night,  I  was  told  to  make  myself  at  home.     At  din- 


DESPIRITING  SOCIAL  SPIRIT        261 

ner  time  one  of  his  assistants  came  to  me  in  the  li- 
brary and  in  a  rebuking  tone  said  the  warden  had 
been  waiting  dinner  for  me  and  wanted  to  know  if  I 
would  come.  I  said  I  would  be  very  glad  to  come 
if  shown  where  dinner  was.  I  was  left  severely 
alone  at  dinner.  The  next  morning  I  could  not  find 
my  shoes,  not  having  been  informed  that  it  was  the 
custom  to  have  them  taken  to  the  dining-room  when 
polished.  I  was  again  left  severely  alone,  upon 
which  the  man  sitting  next  to  me  said,  "  Stranger, 
if  you  don't  help  yourself  here  you  won't  get  any 
breakfast,"  upon  which  information  I  was  very  glad 
to  act.  After  breakfast  I  obeyed  my  instinct  and 
tendered  pay  for  my  night's  lodging  and  two  meals 
to  this  man  on  entertaining  whom  the  friend  who 
introduced  me  had  spent  several  hundred  dollars.  I 
was  given  a  receipt  for  my  money. 

While  there  I  received  a  telegram  and  a  letter  re- 
spectively from  the  other  two  settlements.  The 
telegram  was  from  the  gentleman  who  had  so  in- 
sisted upon  my  staying  at  his  settlement,  and  read, 
"  You  cannot  come  here ;  letter  follows."  The  other 
message  was  an  apology  for  having  delayed  to  con- 
firm the  verbal  invitation  from  the  first  settlement, 
and  closed  with  an  earnest  request  that  I  come. 
This  delayed  invitation,  carrying  a  suggestion  of 
warmth  even  at  long  range,  over-persuaded  me,  for 
my  sensibilities  were  somewhat  threadbare  at  this 
stage,  and  I  presented  myself  that  night  at  the  set- 
tlement, was  graciously  received  by  the  housekeeper 


262  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

and  shown  to  a  room  which  she  said  had  been  re- 
served for  me.  I  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief  and 
thought  that  at  last  I  had  fallen  into  an  atmos- 
phere of  neighborliness.  The  next  morning  upon 
meeting  the  warden  outside  the  breakfast  room,  he 
transfixed  me  with  his  eye  and  shouted,  "  What 
does  all  this  mean?  What  do  you  mean  by  break- 
ing into  our  house  at  midnight  ?  "  I  replied  that 
I  had  not  broken  into  his  house  but  had  come 
through  the  front  door;  that  I  had  not  come  in  at 
midnight,  but  at  eight  o'clock ;  that  I  had  been 
shown  to  a  room  which  the  housekeeper  said  had 
been  reserved  for  me;  and  that  I  had  come  follow- 
ing an  abject  apology  from  him  and  an  urgent  in- 
vitation to  accept  his  hospitality. 

My  secretary  asks,  "  What  was  the  matter  with 
him  ? "  Merely  that  his  social  spirit  had  become 
attenuated  by  the  necessity  of  appearing  cheerful 
and  friendly  with  the  innumerable  beneficiaries  of 
his  professional  social  work. 

It  is  one  of  the  hardest  things  in  the  world  to 
keep  the  instincts  and  thinking  of  social  workers 
natural  and  wholesome.  It  is  hard  for  municipal 
researchers  to  avoid  emphasizing  the  defects  and  to 
avoid  looking  for  little  kinks  in  methods  and  per- 
sonalities of  governments.  It  is  hard  for  minis- 
ters to  avoid  the  "  smirk  that  won't  come  off."  It 
is  hard  for  the  physician  in  a  clinic  to  retain  a  hu- 
man interest  in  each  individual  who  passes  him. 

Of  the  manner  of  giving  as  of  giving  itself,  it  is 


EFFICIENT  MEANS  HUMANIZING      263 

true  that  what  people  think  about  it  is  more  impor- 
tant than  its  direct  results.  Sincere  social  feeling 
without  smirk,  professional  friendliness,  or  harshness 
will  always  be  practically  impossible  unless  benevo- 
lent work  —  by  appealer  and  giver  —  is  related  to 
normal  activities  of  industry,  society  and  govern- 
ment. 

At  my  first  meeting  with  Mrs.  Harriman  she  men- 
tioned the  need  for  humanizing  institutions  so  that 
individuals  in  distress  would  turn  to  relief  agencies 
instead  of  to  individuals  distant  or  near  by. 

The  current  reputation  of  "  scientific  charity  "  — 
too  often  undeserved,  too  often  deserved  —  makes  it 
seem  to  lack  human  qualities.  Its  many  questions 
suggest  suspicion  and  cynicism.  They  at  least  put 
impulse  under  control.  The  suggestions  of  this 
book  that  givers  stop  and  ask  for  results  will  make 
many  readers  fear  that  efficient  will  be  synonymous 
with  inhumane  or  uncharitable. 

Yet  there  is  no  more  reason  why  standardizing 
tests  for  appeals  and  gifts  should  rob  giving  of  its 
humanitarian  qualities  than  that  standardizing 
grammar  rob  writing  of  its  individuality.  Stand- 
ardizing the  tests  of  giving  will  eliminate  so  many 
things  that  givers  do  not  want  to  do  and  remove 
so  many  obstructions  and  disappointments,  that 
the  way  will  be  free  for  humanized  personal  inter- 
est in  the  selected  objects  of  one's  giving. 


Endow  Men  Not  Institutions 

There  is  a  tendency  at  present  voiced  publicly  by 
President  Hadley,  President  David  Starr  Jordan 
and  others,  to  hold  that  it  is  safer  and  more  pro- 
ductive to  endow  men  than  to  endow  institutions. 
This  tendency  is  in  part  a  reaction  against  the  in- 
creasing current  of  appeals  from  every  manner  of 
organized  agency  wishing  endowment.  In  part  it 
is  an  attempt  to  foster  personality  in  giving. 

Without  the  qualifications  which  its  originators 
employ,  the  argument,  as  popularly  interpreted, 
runs  something  like  this :  Institutions  tend  to  be 
impersonal,  represent  the  past  rather  than  the  pres- 
ent or  the  future,  express  tradition  and  wealth 
rather  than  personality.  The  very  institutional 
character  tends  to  shackle  personality,  inhibit  in- 
itiative, cramp  character  and  obstruct  progress. 
Since  they  are  impersonal,  institutions  seldom  call 
out  personality  in  the  donor.  Giving  to  institutions 
means  losing  one's  identity. 

In  practice  this  philosophy  means  an  exaltation 

of   the   personal    access,   of   the   interview   and   the 

whim,  of  intuition,  of  the  fallacy  that  a  giver  can 

feel    for    truth    and    needs    and    opportunities.     In 

practice  it  means  a  bribe  to  the  poor  and  weak  as 

well  as  to  the  strong  and  rich,  "  to  play  up  to  "  the 

personality,    whim,    vanity,    snap-shot   judgment   of 

prospective   donors.     Instead    of  being   encouraged 

264 


SPIDER  WEBS  FOR  GIVERS  265 

and  required  to  explain  and  justify  each  appeal 
with  facts,  institutions  are  tempted,  and  success- 
fully, to  devise  spider  webs  of  personal  contact  — 
lunches,  dinners,  public  functions,  public  honors, 
private  flattery, —  to  catch  the  would-be  backer  of 
the  man. 

Endow  Men  Via  Institutions 

A  man  who  is  incapable  of  building  around  him 
an  institution  is  not  a  safe  man  to  endow.  Equally 
true  it  is  that  a  man  who  can  build  an  institution 
and  who  does  not  give  it  more  than  his  own  person- 
ality or  make  it  reflect  more  than  his  own  person- 
ality is  not  a  productive  man  to  endow. 

For  the  same  reason  that  the  rich  man,  according 
to  Mr.  Rockefeller,  soon  reaches  the  limit  of  dimin- 
ishing returns  when  spending  the  income  of  millions 
upon  his  own  pleasures,  is  it  true  that  gifts  invested 
in  backing  personality  are  certain  to  reach  soon  the 
limit  of  diminishing  returns.  The  reason  for  this 
is  that  a  strong  personality,  a  man  worth  backing 
and  well  financed,  establishes  contact  which,  in  turn, 
brings  influence  and  definite  obligations  of  work  be- 
yond the  powers  of  any  one  man  to  supervise. 

The  man  who  has  created  a  work  by  sheer  force 
of  his  personality  is  unfair  to  that  work  unless  he 
makes  it  independent  of  his  personality. 

The  precept  Endow  men  not  institutions  will  mis- 
lead many  givers  because,  taking  wealthy  men  and 
women  as  they  give  and  taking  able  men  and  women 
deserving  endowment,  the  personal  equation  will  in 


266  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

the  nature  of  things  determine  the  object  of  endow- 
ment with  little  or  no  reference  to  men  and  agencies 
which  may  do  better  work  and  be  more  worthy  of 
endowment. 

Institutions  in  large  numbers  are  looking  for 
personalities  to  conduct  them.  Men  with  ideas  di- 
vorced from  existing  institutions  are  not  numerous 
enough  to  afford  opportunities  for  endowment  by 
the  large  number  of  men  and  women  wanting  to 
give.  Instead  of  endowing  men,  money  should  en- 
dow activity,  endow  service,  endow  program. 
Neither  is  feasible  nor  successful  without  endowing 
institutions.  The  Harriman  Industrial  Corpora- 
tion illustrates  my  point.  As  Arden  House  neared 
completion  Mrs.  Harriman  regretted  the  necessity 
of  scattering  the  local  staff  of  artisans  who  had 
erected  it.  Hence  the  head  carpenter,  head  mason, 
head  plumber,  etc,  were  brought  together  into  a 
corporation  which  now  takes  contracts  in  any  part 
of  Orange  county.  Mrs.  Harriman  deals  with  one 
institution  not  with  several  "  boss  "  artisans.  The 
corporation  disciplines  its  members,  introduces  time 
clocks  and  unit  cost  records.  Via  a  cooperative  in- 
stitution several  worth-while  men  are  thus  "  backed." 

Men  of  personality  ought  not  to  be  expected  or 
permitted  to  put  themselves  on  exhibition  before  rich 
men  and  women  as  candidates  for  endowment.  The 
mere  establishment  of  those  personal  relations  which 
bring  about  an  endowment  has  many  a  time  pre- 
vented the  accomplishment  of  a  purpose  great 
enough  to  justify  endowment. 


BACKING  IDEAS,  MEETING  NEEDS     267 

The  exigencies  of  competition  when  rich  men  and 
women  are  looking  for  other  men  and  women  to 
endow  put  a  premium  on  the  interfering  personal 
relation.  Similarly,  the  test  of  competition  among 
people  who  are  interested  in  institutions  without 
reference  to  their  social  product  puts  a  premium 
on  obstructive  and  confusing  personal  relations. 
Wealthy  men  and  women  who  endow  other  men  and 
women  will  be  continually  disappointed.  Let  them 
look  for  ideas  and  activities  to  endow  and  they  need 
never  be  disappointed,  so  long  as  activity  and 
achievement  rather  than  personality  are  emphasized. 

Given  a  program  worth  backing,  every  commu- 
nity can  find  within  its  limits  the  organizing  and 
supervising  capacity  able  to  make  that  program 
effective  and  to  give  it  permanence  and  continuity 
through  an  efficient,  humanized  and  humanizing  in- 
stitution. 

Efficient  giving  as  a  projector  and  perpetuator 
of  the  donor's  personality  has  not  been  generally 
enough  tried.  It  is  no  more  true  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  extend  and  perpetuate  personal  influence 
by  efficient  giving  than  that  an  inventor's  influence 
can  be  limited  by  his  personal  acquaintance. 

Instead  of  picking  and  backing  men,  efficient  giv- 
ing will  pick  and  back  ideas  and  programs  with 
such  conditions  as  to  spending  that  the  man  can  ful- 
fill his  pledges  only  by  building  around  him  efficient, 
humanized  and  humanizing  institutional  support. 


The  Fetish  of  Unconscious  Influence 

Devotees  of  unconscious  influence  are  fond  of  say- 
ing, "  I  would  rather  help  a  hundred  scamps  than 
let  one  deserving  person  go  hungry."  They  hon- 
estly feel  that  standardized  intentional  helpfulness 
tends  to  dry  up  the  impulse  sources  of  benevolence. 

The  most  beautiful  and  most  plausible  apostro- 
phe to  unconscious  influence  that  I  know  is  Pippa 
Passes,  of  which  Browning's  editor  says: 

"  Pippa  Passes  is  hinged  on  the  chance  ap^ 
pearance  of  Pippa,  a  poor  child,  ...  at 
critical  moments  in  the  spiritual  life- history  of 
the  leading  characters  in  the  play.  Just  when 
their  emotions,  passions,  motives  are  swinging 
backwards  and  forwards  Pippa  passes  by  sing- 
ing some  refrain,  and  her  voice  determines  the 
action  and  fashions  the  destinies  of  men  and 
women  to  whom  she  is  unknown." 

I  hope  that  those  of  my  readers  who  instinctively 
revolt  against  efficiency  tests  for  giving  will  care  to 
reread  Pippa  Passes,  keeping  in  mind  their  friends 
among  social  workers  and  philanthropists,  to  see 
whether  social  workers  are  more  apt  to  underesti- 
mate the  value  of  unconscious  influence  than  are 
philanthropists,  educators,  beauty-makers,  truth 
seekers  and  religious-minded  to  underestimate  the 
value  of  conscious  influence.  This  challenge  is  nec- 
essary   because    those    who    best    know    community 

268 


LESSON  FROM  PIPPA  PASSES        269 

needs,  and  those  who  have  money  for  meeting  needs, 
are  not  now  able  to  use  a  common  language,  largely 
because  they  place  different  estimates  upon  the 
value  of  conscious  versus  unconscious  influence,  of 
system  versus  instinct,  permanent  gratification  ver- 
sus temporary  self  indulgence.  If  those  who  see 
needs  could  learn  the  language  of  those  who  have 
extra  time  and  extra  money,  both  conscious  and  un- 
conscious influence  would  be  more  effectively  em- 
ployed to  prevent  organized  society  from  manufac- 
turing wretchedness,  sickness,  crime  and  incapacity. 

Pippa's  influence,  like  the  influence  of  anybody 
else,  should  be  measured  by  her  background  and  en- 
vironment, by  the  sum  total  of  its  results  and  not 
by  the  few  results  which  lend  themselves  to  dra- 
matic emphasis. 

Whom  did  Pippa  influence  unconsciously?  Just 
four  out  of  a  population  of  6,000.  She  influenced 
directly  only  "  Asolo's  four  happiest  ones,"  —  the 
fellow  assassin  and  lover  of  Ottima,  her  employ- 
er's wife  —  rich,  beautiful,  young  and  gossip-defy- 
ing; Jules,  an  artist,  at  noon  to  wed  a  Greek 
beauty ;  Luigi,  a  rich  young  man,  "  cared  about, 
kept  out  of  harm  and  schemed  for,"  whose  devotion 
to  his  mother  compels  Asolo-wide  admiration;  and 
Monsignor,  who  has 

A  heart  which  beats  and  eyes  which  mildly  burn 
With  love  for  all  men. 

Indirectly  she  influenced  Ottima,  Jules'  bride,  Lui- 
gi's  mother  and  Monsignor's  co-trustee. 


270  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

They  are  right  who  say  her  influence  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  unconscious.  If  she  had 
knocked  at  Ottima's  door  or  Monsignor's  and  an- 
nounced that  she  had  a  song  to  which  she  invited 
their  kind  attention,  or  even  if  she  had  asked  the 
privilege  of  "  friendly  visiting "  Jules  and  Luigi, 
she  would  probably  have  turned  the  balance  toward 
rather  than  away  from  what  each  considered  wrong. 

But  the  playing,  singing,  trespassing,  flower- 
picking  young  Pippa,  pitifully  anxious  not  to 
squander  a  mite  of  her  twelve  hours  treasure, 
also  passed  without  influencing:  tempters,  torment- 
ers,  misguided  mill  girls,  drunken  revelers,  procur- 
ers, a  trust-stealing,  child-ruining  city  official,  and 
organized  forces  of  evil  working  consciously  and  in- 
telligently three  hundred  and  sixty  five  days  each 
year. 

In  fact,  not  a  soul  was  influenced  by  Pippa's  song 
except  the  four  who  were  hesitating  between  right 
and  wrong  at  the  moment  she  passed.  If  the  songs 
had  been  in  different  order,  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
the  wavering  four  would  have  chosen  wrong  instead 
of  right.  Had  Sebald  heard  Is  she  wronged,  is 
she  poor  he  might  have  been  sorry  for  Ottima  and 
thought  her  worth  living  for;  had  Jules  heard 
Suddenly  God  took  me  he  might  have  had  Phene 
and  the  students  arrested;  had  Luigi  heard  God's 
in  his  heaven  he  might  have  seen  the  futility  of  his 
sacrifice;  had  Monsignor  heard  Such  grace  had 
kings   when   the  world  began  his   conscience  might 


LESSON  FROM  PIPPA  PASSES        271 

have  yielded  to  the  hypnotic  influence  of  gold  and 
power. 

Asolo  is  a  village  of  6,000  souls,  most  of  whom 
are  employed  in  ten  silk  mills;  it  has  saloons,  vaga- 
bonds, street  women,  even  Raines  Law  hotels,  where 
rich  old  men  like  to  see  little  girls  write  bad  words 
in  red  wine  on  marble  tables.  Pippa  passed  these 
as  well  as  the  four  she  influenced.  In  fact,  a 
wealthy  and  influential  official,  a  group  of  mill  girls, 
a  blue  eyed,  light  haired  English  vagabond,  and  a 
group  of  policemen  started  out  this  very  day  with 
a  skillful,  well  financed  plan  to  give  Pippa  fine 
clothes,  leisure  and  a  speedy  road  to  oblivion. 
They  were  consciously  stationed  so  as  to  be  uncon- 
sciously passed  by  Pippa.  They  were  not  bunglers. 
They  had  their  stories  carefully  worded  to  appeal 
to  her  love  of  the  beautiful.  They  were  to  offer 
her  not  degradation,  but  rather  the  very  chance  to 
influence  which  she  craved, —  to 

Do  good  or  evil  to  them  in  some  way. 

The  living  and  working  conditions  of  Asolo  were 
not  affected  by  Pippa's  unconscious  influence.  The 
corrupting  and  corruptible  police  remained.  Over- 
crowding, under  paying,  exploitation  continued. 
Pippa  herself  returned  to  her  garret  to  wind  silk 

The  whole  year  round  to  earn  just  bread  and  milk. 

Other  Pippas  bathed  in  hand  basins,  went  bare  leg- 
ged,   and    at    their    mill    tasks    dreamed    the    next 


272  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

"  whole  year  round  "  of  leisure  and  opportunity  to 
enjoy  the  beautiful  things  of  life.  Conscious,  evil 
influences  well  organized,  with  habits  of  doing  wrong 
efficiently,  were  not  touched  by  Pippa. 

Pippa's  exuberance  was  due  to  ignorance  of  dan- 
gers and  evils  that  abounded  in  Asolo.  To  combat 
temptation,  crime,  injustice,  and  overwork  by  ig- 
norance, by  "  unconscious  influence,"  or  by  "  irre- 
sponsible benevolence  "  has  proved  ineffective  in  fire 
protection,  health  protection,  education,  penology 
and  religion.  It  appears,  when  studied,  quite  as  in- 
effective in  private  giving. 

Individual  growth  and  social  progress  require 
both  organized  opposition  to  evil  and  organized  as- 
sertion of  the  right  to  be  free  from  organized  temp- 
tation, to  be  educated,  to  be  refined,  to  be  indus- 
trially and  socially  efficient,  to  be  morally  and  phy- 
sically strong. 

Only  by  conscious  efficiency  tests  can  communities 
utilize  every  day  in  the  year  the  aspirations,  re- 
ligious motives  and  love  of  one's  fellow  men  epito- 
mized in  Pippa's  philosophy  and  song. 

Unconscious  influence,  unless  supplemented  by 
conscious  influence,  is  sure  to  be  wasted  and  is  sure 
to  evade,  palliate  and  aggravate  the  evil  as  often 
as  it  achieves  the  good. 

Human  experience,  as  well  as  religious  precept, 
qualifies  the  statement,  All  service  ranks  the  same 
with  God.  Half  hearted  service  is  not  equal  to 
whole  hearted  service.     Unintelligent  service  is  not 


Mailing  Card  from  N.  Y.  Bureau  of  Municipal  Rcicarch 

Sent  by  the  New  York  Woman  who  Had  Us  Make  a  Study  of 

Water  Troughs  for  Manhattan's  90,000  Horses 

ONE  METHOD  OF  MEETING   A   CIVIC   NEED 


LESSON  FROM  PIPPA  PASSES        Wit 

equal  to  intelligent  service.  Unconscious  service  is 
not  equal  to  conscious  service.  Treatment  of  symp- 
toms is  not  equal  to  treatment  of  causes.  There 
is  more  joy  in  conscious,  efficiently  directed  influ- 
ence than  in  wasted,  unconscious  influence. 

Pippa  escaped  harm  by  accident;  Pippa  saved 
souls  by  accident;  to  rely  upon  accident  for  individ- 
ual or  social  improvement  is  just  as  truly  gambling 
as  to  rely  upon  accident  for  investment  profits. 
Gambling  on  race  track  and  stock  exchange  does 
infinitely  less  harm  than  the  other  gambling  where 
wealth  puts  Pippa  into  the  ring  against  organized 
temptation  and  exploitation ;  gives  alms  to  a  va- 
grant needing  work ;  laments  evils  that  should  be 
abolished;  spends  millions  upon  millions  on  subsidiz- 
ing unconscious  influence ;  and  only  mite  after  mite 
on  organized  opposition  to  organized  corruption, 
incompetence  and  disorder. 

Ten  thousand  Pippas  might  pass  the  offices  and 
palaces  of  captains  of  industry  and  exert  less  in- 
fluence than  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley's  reiterated  de- 
mand for  ethical  gains  through  properly  enforced 
factory  legislation  for  the  protection  of  women  and 
children.  Ten  thousand  visitors  to  Bronx  Park  in 
ten  years  would  not  do  as  much  to  prevent  exploita- 
tion of  taxpayers  of  Bronx  Borough  for  evil  ends 
as  the  conscious  service  of  John  Purroy  Mitchel  as 
commissioner  of  accounts.  For  generations  the  un- 
conscious influence  of  Christian  women  failed  to  pre- 
vent inhuman  treatment  of  the  insane,  indigent  and 


274  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

infant  until  the  conscious  energies  of  Mrs.  Josephine 
Shaw  Lowell,  Miss  Louisa  Lee  Schuyler  and  Mrs. 
William  B.  Rice  and  their  colleagues  organized  the 
State  Charities  Aid  Association. 

This  contrast  between  conscious  and  unconscious 
influence  is  stated  as  a  fact,  not  as  a  judgment 
upon  unconscious  influence.  Those  who  are  happy, 
cheerful,  buoyant,  confident  always  radiate  happi- 
ness, cheer,  buoyancy,  confidence.  Self  depreciation 
and  ingrowing  thoughts  are  always  and  everywhere 
in  life,  as  in  poetry,  anti-social,  profligate  and  dis- 
appointing. 

No  day  is  so  insignificant,  no  visitor  so  indiffer- 
ent, no  task  so  slight,  no  qualities  so  meager,  no 
appeal  so  commonplace,  as  to  justify  us  in  not  put- 
ting the  best  we  are  or  ever  hope  to  be  into  our 
living.  No  person  or  group  is  so  strong  and  im- 
pervious as  not  to  be  injured  by  the  looks  and  acts 
of  fellow  workers,  employers  or  teachers  who  in- 
dulge in  blues,  cynicism  and  selfishness.  History, 
philosophy  and  religion  join  in  proving  that  no 
man  is  free  from  obligation  to  do  the  best  he  can 
wheresoever  and  whatever  he  is.  In  such  responsi- 
bility there  is  no  last  or  first.  If  the  apostle  of  ef- 
ficiency seems  to  under-emphasize  this,  it  is  only 
because  he  takes  it  for  granted  as  he  does  honesty 
and  politeness.  Those  who  plead  for  conscious  in 
addition  to  unconscious  influence,  for  a  givers'  clear- 
ing house  in  addition  to  the  best  that  individual 
givers   may   do,  would  not  subtract  one  iota  from 


CONSCIOUS  INFLUENCE  275 

sentiment,  spontaneity  or  personal  religion.  In- 
stead of  undervaluing  unconscious  influence,  we  want 
to  store  it  where  its  waste  can  be  prevented  and 
whence  its  flow  can  be  directed. 


"Have  You  Ever  Been  Arrested?" 

If  you  had  do  you  think  you  could  forget  it? 

If  you  said  you  forgot  it  would  you  expect  people  to  believe  you  > 

If  you  were  capable  of  forgetting  it  would  you  consider  yourself 

qualified  to  be  a  policeman? 
Would  you  make  a  good  policeman  if  you  could  misunderstand 

the  questions :     "Were  you  ever  arrested  ?     Were  you  ever 

convicted  ? 
To  having  such  questions  answered  the  greater  part  of  six  police 

inquiry  hearings  has  been  given 
Have   you   been  disappointed  or  pleased  that  the  aldermanic 

police  inquiry  to  date  has  dealt  with  methods  of  appointing 

and  promoting  policemen  rather  than  with  vice,  gambling, 

graft,  etc.  ? 

BUREAU    OF    MUNICIPAL    RESEARCH 

261    Broadway,  New  York 

Efficient  Citizenship  No.  569 

Police  Inquiry  Summary  No.  1— from  513  Pages  of  Testimony 


PART  ni 


A  National  Clearing  House  for  Givers 

"  Unconscious  influence  "  should  give  force,  not  di- 
rection; inspiration,  not  purpose.  We  must  do  for 
the  giver's  river  of  emotions  what  towns  along  the 
Ohio  River  do  to  prevent  freshets  and  floods. 
Where  otherwise  a  narrow  river  bed  would  be  over- 
run by  a  relatively  slight  change  in  the  volume  of 
water  trying  to  run  through  it,  we  must  build  res- 
ervoirs, which  can  take  in  an  additional  inch  or  three 
inches  or  five  inches  of  emotion  without  appreciably 
affecting  the  river's  level.  • 

Philanthropy's  reservoirs  will  be  in  fact  clearing 
houses, —  in  the  mind  of  the  donor  progressively  in- 
formed, in  cities  and  states  for  donors  and  appeal- 
ers, and  in  the  United  States  for  interstate  appeals 
and  nation  wide  needs. 

Efficiency  tests  are  conduits  which  afford  access 
and  exit  to  personal  interest  and  emancipate  sym- 
pathy. The  scientific  management  of  our  day  does 
not  underestimate  personal  service,  but  is  doing 
what  past  generations  failed  to  do, —  finding  means 
of  preventing  the  enormous  waste  of  personal  serv- 
ice and  directing  it  to  things  that  need  working  out. 

By  this  time  the  reader  has  decided  whether  let- 
ters of  appeal,  such  as  come  to  Mrs.  Harriman,  are 
too  valuable  for  the  waste  basket  and  whether  it  is 
desirable,  if  practicable,  to  work  out  some  plan  of 

279 


280  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

cooperation  among  receivers  of  letters  and  among 
receivers,  appealers  and  public.  While  theoret- 
ically there  is  a  law  of  trusteeship  that  applies  to 
any  person  who  receives  information  of  another's 
need,  in  practice  we  may  not  enforce  this  trustee- 
ship until  we  have  found  a  method  by  which  the 
rich  person  can  recognize  responsibility  without 
running  the  risk  of  doing  more  harm  than  good  for 
want  of  time  and  information.  For  individuals  it 
is  not  practicable  to  duplicate  or  to  continue  such 
studies  as  Mrs.  Harriman's  and  therefore  no  definite 
obligation  rests  upon  them  individually.  As  a 
group,  however,  receivers  of  appeals  have  an  obli- 
gation because  it  is  practicable  for  them  to  combine 
in  using  their  opportunity  to  help.  This  sugges- 
tion applies  to  those  cases  where  only  a  kind  word 
is  needed  quite  as  much  as  where  food,  medical  treat- 
ment or  scientific  research  is  needed.  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller proposed  in  his  autobiography  a  benevolent 
trust.  With  the  same  end  in  view  Mrs.  Harriman, 
after  comparing  notes  with  other  givers,  proposes 
a  cooperative  clearing  house  for  givers  and  appeal- 
ers. 

Where  Would  a  Cooperative  Clearing  House  for 
Givers  and  Appealers  be? 

The   logical   home   for   a   national   center   is   the 
Mecca  of  appealers  —  New  York  City. 

How  Would  it  be  Supported? 
As    teachers    and    laborers    support    employment 


HOW  IT  WOULD  BE  SUPPORTED     281 

agencies ;  as  business  houses  support  Bradstreet  and 
Dun ;  as  financial  clearing  houses  are  supported  by 
those  to  whom  they  render  service ;  as  architects  and 
consulting  engineers  are  supported. 

At  the  outset  several  branches  of  its  work  would 
be  self  supporting;  while  other  branches,  such  as 
advice  to  appealers,  givers  and  will  makers,  might 
also  in  time  become  self  supporting. 

Each  patron  would  pay  for  the  systematic  analy- 
sis and  handling  of  letters  sent  by  him.  Service 
would  be  paid  for  by  the  job,  by  commission  or  fee, 
or  by  the  year.  A  sound  working  principle  would 
be  to  charge  "  what  the  traffic  would  bear "  — a 
sort  of  progressive  tax  on  the  assumption  that  the 
service  would  be  worth  more  to  a  man  listed  at  ten 
million  than  to  a  man  listed  at  one  million.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  view  of  the  public  purpose  to  be 
served  by  this  clearing  house,  a  progressive  discount 
might  be  offered  as  the  number  of  letters  sent  by  a 
subscriber  increased. 

The  cost  of  intensive  studies  or  special  scientific 
researches  might  be  borne  by  donors  specially  in- 
terested. The  field  will  ultimately  prove  as 
tempting  to  millionaires  as  medical,  social  and  sci- 
entific research.  Is  it  not  quite  as  important  for  so- 
ciety to  study  its  own  weak  links  as  to  study  mi- 
crobes in  laboratories,  or  fiction  and  science  in  pub- 
lic libraries  and  colleges? 

Who  Would  Use  the  Clearing  House? 
Primarily  persons  receiving  appeals  and  wishing 


282  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

a  substitute  for  the  waste  basket,  then  givers,  ap- 
pealers, editors,  educators,  public  officials,  students 
and  lookers-on. 

What  Will  the  Clearing  House  Do? 

Combine  the  aims  and  services  of  college,  library, 
laboratory,  university  extension,  scientific  journal, 
popular  magazine,  bureau  of  advice  and  informa- 
tion, market  place,  pawn  shop,  card  index,  charities 
directory,  trade  school,  correspondence  school. 

Among  the  specific  purposes  of  a  cooperative 
clearing  house  for  givers  and  appealers  the  follow- 
ing deserve  mention : 

Services   for    Individual   Appealers 

1.  Read  letters   of  appeal,  not  reluctantly  but 

with  avidity,  to  see  what,  if  any,  lesson  they 
have  for  receiver,  writer,  possible  donor  or 
public 

2.  Treat   every   writer   of   appeals   as   a   corre- 

spondent student, —  an  educational  oppor- 
tunity. Go  after  his  business  —  his 
thought  about  philanthropy  —  as  a  busi- 
ness house  goes  after  a  correspondent. 
Make  him  a  missionary  for  efficient  giving 
and  for  local  discharge  of  local  responsibil- 
ity. Describe  work  of  central  bureau,  vol- 
ume of  business,  amounts  requested,  alter- 
natives presented 

3.  Refer  letters  to  local  agencies,  if  any,  whose 

help  should  be  requisitioned.     Explain  why 


CLEARING  HOUSE  FOR  APPEALERS     283 

local  agencies  —  bank,  charitable  society, 
minister,  schools  —  are  in  better  position 
to  help  than  persons  living  at  a  distance 

4.  Emphasize    desire   to    assist.     Assume   desire 

on  the  part  of  local  agencies  to  assist 

5.  Notify   local  agencies  of  breakdowns  alleged 

or  indicated  by  letters  of  appeal,  call  for 
individual  statement  showing  percentage  of 
field  covered  by  each  agency,  and  explana- 
tion or  denial  of  breakdown  (A  man  who 
leaves  his  wife  and  children  in  an  institu- 
tion and  borrows  money  from  hotel  clerks 
with  which  to  buy  newspaper  and  Bible 
quotations  to  further  one  of  the  greatest 
constructive  schemes  .  .  .  to  make 
$830,000,000  should  be  examined  for  his 
sanity.  Otherwise,  instead  of  becoming 
one  of  the  most  helpful,  progressive  and 
useful  men  of  my  time,  he  may  easily  be- 
come a  homicide) 

6.  List  the  public  needs  mentioned  or  indicated 

by  appeals  for  individual  relief.  Record 
and  publish  list  of  things  of  value  offered 
for  sale  and  collect  commissions  from  buy- 
ers 

7.  Give  similar  cases  of  distress  in  a  large  num- 

ber of  places  an  opportunity  to  tell  the  ap- 
palling story  which  otherwise  we  get  only 
from  a  large  number  of  cases  of  distress  in 
one  place.     A  flood  which  devastates  5,000 


284  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

homes  is  no  harder  for  Mrs.  A.  than  the 
flood  which  devastates  ten  homes  of  which 
hers  is  one 
8.  Follow  up  correspondence:  see  that  the  man 
who  is  trying  to  break  the  morphine  habit 
by  taking  patent  medicines  will  not  become 
an  aggravated  case  no  longer  desiring  a 
cure.  See  that  something  is  done  about  the 
money  broker  who  demands  $85  on  a  loan 
of  $150;  spend  the  twenty  cents  necessary 
to  bring  together  an  old  man  of  sixty  and 
a  relief  society  willing  to  pay  for  a  set  of 
teeth  so  that  he  can  support  himself  and  his 
wife  and  keep  out  of  a  hospital  where  it 
would  cost  more  than  a  set  of  teeth  to  keep 
him  one  night  and  where,  without  the  teeth, 
he  would  become  a  permanent  charge  upon 
the  public;  don't  lose  sight  of  the  man  who 
claims  to  have  invented  a  practical,  cheap, 
sanitary  fountain  or  a  means  of  stopping 
collisions ;  open  up  the  blind  alleys  which  in- 
dicate the  gap  between  what  activities  are 
supposed  to  be  doing  and  what  they  get 
done. 

For  example,  (a)  a  woman  in  Virginia 
wrote  of  a  tuberculous  boy;  (b)  we  called 
the  case  to  the  attention  of  the  state  board 
of  health ;  (c)  received  a  letter  to  the  effect 
that  a  "  circular  of  information  regarding 
the  terms  and  conditions  for  incipient  tuber- 


CLEARING  HOUSE  FOR  APPEALERS     285 

miosis  will  be  sent"  to  our  correspondent. 
Shall  a  clearing  house  wash  its  hands  of  such 
a  case  after  shifting  the  responsibility  for  it 
to  the  state  health  authorities  of  Virginia? 
As  the  circular  shows  and  as  the  woman 
points  out,  the  institution  is  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  boy,  first,  because  it  takes  only 
incipient  cases  while  his  is  advanced,  and, 
secondly,  because  it  requires  $20  a  month 
which  his  family  cannot  pay.  There  is  no 
further  obligation  resting  upon  any  one  ex- 
cept those  who  see  that  there  are  one  or  two 
other  moves  which  would  help  the  people  of 
Virginia  see  their  need  for  at  least  the  home 
care  of  advanced  tuberculosis  and  for  both 
home  and  institutional  care  and  instruction 
of  incipient  cases.  We  wrote  to  the  national 
association  whose  business  it  is  to  get  to- 
gether from  all  parts  of  the  country  evi- 
dence of  the  need  for  private  and  govern- 
. mental  action  against  the  white  plague.  It 
is  obvious  that  a  permanently  established 
clearing  house  could,  by  proper  follow  up 
work,  help  the  general  association  get  the 
funds  necessary  to  do  its  nation-wide  work 
9.  Publish  summaries  showing  where  individual 
•  appeals  indicate  breakdowns,  i.e.,  that  many 
railroads  have  neither  relief  nor  pension 
funds,  that  medical  research  is  helpless 
before      measles      and      rheumatism,      and 


286  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

that    rural    districts    are   without   hospitals 
Services  for  Institutional  Appealers 

10.  Regard   as   educational  opportunity;  explain 

purposes,  volume  of  business,  etc 

11.  Write  asking  questions  which  will  bring  out 

the  whole  case  as  to  field  involved,  percent- 
age covered,  percentage  uncovered,  relation 
of  each  agency  to  others  of  its  kind,  to  re- 
lated private  and  public  agencies  in  the 
same  field  and  to  government;  enclose  cir- 
cular on  technique  of  appealing,  supple- 
mented, if  necessary,  by  reference  to  defects 
which  the  appealer  would  undoubtedly  be 
glad  to  correct  as  a  means  of  increasing  his 
efficiency;  for  example,  when  presidents  of 
national  banks  and  large  trust  companies 
and  city  officers  enclose  with  their  appeal  a 
detailed  financial  statement  headed  A  very 
good  record  which  shows  at  a  glance  an  un- 
derstatement by  11%  of  the  year's  cost 

12.  Standardize  methods  of  appealing  so  that  all 

correspondents  may  have  the  benefit  of  the 
best  practice  of  each,  thus  crowding  indi- 
viduality above  the  minimum  standard  of 
efficiency;  send  illustrative  blanks  showing 
how  proper  records  may  be  kept  and. proper 
analysis  made  of  expenses  and  of  work 

13.  Frankly    criticise    annual   reports   which   are 

sent  in  support  of  appeals,  if  inadequate 


CLEARING  FOR  GIVERS  287 

14.  Offer  to  criticise  reports  with  a  view  to  im- 

proving, free  or  for  a  fee  according  to  time 
required 

15.  Answer  questions  from  appealing  agencies  as 

to  methods  of  appealing,  methods  of  work, 
etc 

16.  Offer  to  criticise   appeal,  free  or   for  a  fee, 

with  particular  reference  to  its  use  of  facts 
in  support  of  its  appeal 

17.  Publish  summaries  of  needs  disclosed  by   in- 

stitutional appeals  and  of  lessons  learned 
from  studying  them.  Issue  this  summary 
as  a  bulletin  to  all  appealing  agencies  regis- 
tered 

Services  for  Receivers  of  Appeals 

18.  Guarantee  a  sympathetic  reading  of  letters 

19.  In  answering  letters  and  informing  appealers 

express,  so  far  as  known,  the  receiver's 
point  of  view 

20.  Send  summary  to  each  person  of  work  done 

for  him  and  needs  disclosed  and  lessons 
learned  from  letters  sent  to  him 

Services  for  Givers 

21.  Send  summaries  and  bulletins.     The  door  to 

an  admirable  appeal  for  a  self  supporting 
woman's  hotel  should  not  be  closed  because 
a  particular  recipient  happens  not  to  wish 


288  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

to  iake  it  up  at  the  time,  or  because  the 
person  who  proposed  it  happens  to  be  busi- 
nesslike instead  of  mendicant,  or  a  business 
woman  instead  of  another  philanthropist. 
Some  national  body  should  be  a  free  con- 
ductor of  such  pressure  of  fact  and  sugges- 
tion as  came  in  an  appeal  for  a  chair  of  po- 
litical science  in  a  university  situated  in  the 
capital  city  of  a  great  state  where  all  sta- 
tistics are  available;  where  the  legislatures 
can  be  studied;  where  great  libraries  are 
available  practically  perfect  for  the  study. 
.  .  .  The  state  insane  hospital,  blind 
school,  mute  school,  feeble  minded  institu- 
tion, reform  school,  which  could  be  studied 
m  their  relation  to  government  welfare, 
.  .  The  legislative  enactments  of  our 
state  are  in  danger  of  running  ahead  of  the 
social  development  of  the  people.  A  new 
idea  that  may  be  too  big  for  one  giver  will 
be  welcomed  by  his  neighbor.  An  old  idea 
too  small  for  a  trained  giver  may  be  just 
right  for  the  beginning  giver 

22.  Invite  and  answer  questions 

23.  Submit    lists    of    alternatives.     Help    a    man 

who  announces  to  the  world,  /  am  absolutely 
at  sea  as  to  what  I  should  do  with  this 
$250,000  for  charity.  I  wish  I  could  get 
out  of  handling  the  money.  I  guess  I  will 
have  to  build  a  home  for  abandoned  infants; 


CLEARING   HOUSE   FOR   THE   PUBLIC     289 

that  looks  as  if  I  might  get  rid  of  $100,000. 
A  clearing  house  might  remind  this  man 
that  the  only  reason  he  is  finding  it  hard  to 
give  away  money  is  that  he  is  starting  with 
personal  whim  and  personal  pull  instead  of 
studying  what  his  community  needs 

24.  Send    no    communications    to    persons    other 

than  appealers,  organized  agencies,  private 
and  public,  editors,  scientific  bodies,  except 
when  specifically  requested 

Services  to  the  General  Public 

25.  Send   lists   of  needs,   alternatives   for   giving 

and  summaries  of  lessons  learned  to  all  re- 
sponsible individuals  requesting  to  be  put  on 
the  mailing  list.  Should  this  entail  too 
great  expense,  require  a  fee  to  make  this 
service  at  least  partially  self  supporting 

26.  Make  lessons   available  to  public  and  college 

libraries,  scientific  agencies,  etc.  A  letter 
describing  three  children  with  infantile  pa- 
ralysis in  one  home  and  an  offer  of  a  doctor 
in  North  Dakota  to  cure  these  children  for 
$46  a  week  each,  belongs  to  the  Rockefeller 
Institute  for  Medical  Research  and  not  to 
the  waste  basket 

27.  Send    information    regularly    to    newspapers, 

magazines,  students  and  writers  in  the  fields 
of  sociology  and  government 

28.  Keep    a    card    index    of   needs    such    as    Mr. 


290  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Charles  A.  Coffin  of  the  General  Electric 
once  proposed  for  efficient  municipal  em- 
ployees to  show  where  prospective  leaders 
are 

29.  Collect    facts    and    suggestions    from    books, 

newspapers,  magazines,  reports  of  appeal- 
ing agencies,  proceedings  of  conventions 
and  disseminate  them  after  fitting  them 
into  the  background  of  lessons  from  ap- 
peals. There  is  now  no  provision  for  mak- 
ing such  material  promptly  available  al- 
though it  will  always  be  better  than  more 
formal  material  in  books 

30.  Furnish  facts  to  will  makers,  will  drawers  and 

consulting  experts  in  will  making 

31.  Study  scientifically  large  giving,  will  making 

and  wholesale  benefactions  via  inheritance, 
income,  transfer  and  ordinary  taxes,  and 
publish  the  results 

32.  Use  the  facts  in  the  clearing  house  as  labora- 

tory for  the  field  training  of  students  in 
social  work  and  government 

33.  Organize  and  conduct  a  national  museum  that 

will  do  for  the  fields  of  efficient  giving  and 
efficient  citizenship  what  the  Smithsonian 
Institute  does  for  natural  science 
34*.  Conduct  a  national  question  and  answer 
bureau  for  the  double  purpose  of  advertis- 
ing the  wealth  of  material  in  the  clearing 
house,  as  circulating  libraries,  universitv  ex- 


CLEARING   HOUSE   FOR   THE   PUBLIC     291 

tension,  legislative  and  municipal  reference 
libraries  take  information  to  those  who  can- 
not be  brought  to  information  centers 

35.  Stimulate    the    establishment    of   local    clear- 

ing houses  and  correspondence  centers,  par- 
ticularly in  connection  with  state  and  local 
libraries.  To  illustrate:  a  magazine  arti- 
cle describes  some  new  thing,  let  us  say 
milk  inspection.  From  100  localities  citi- 
zens and  officials  write  asking  for  informa- 
tion. To  answer  these  letters  as  promptly 
as  they  should  be  answered  means  a  drain 
Upon  local  funds,  private  and  public,  which 
is  not  justifiable  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
contributors  and  beneficiaries  of  those  funds. 
Now  it  is  absolutely  nobody's  business  in 
the  United  States  to  equip  himself  to  an- 
swer such  questions.  Nobody  has  the  money 
to  formulate  and  distribute  "  next  steps  " 
for  cities  of  5,000  and  20,000.  What 
really  happens  is  that  inquirers  are  given  a 
more  or  less  perfunctory  answer,  are  re- 
ferred to  annual  reports  and  to  publica- 
tions, and  thus  thousands  of  plans  for  edu- 
cating communities  to  self  help  are  stillborn 

36.  Advertise  the  bearing  of  all  lessons  from  ap- 

peals upon  efforts  to  improve  local,  state 
and  national  governments.  If  private  agen- 
cies know  of  conscienceless  wrong  of  land 
sharks    seizing    the    seaman    when    he    has 


292 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


just  landed  after  a  weary  voyage  and  is  to 
be  caught  off  his  guard,  rob  and  ruin  him 
when  once  they  get  him  in  their  grasp,  there 
is  something  for  local  government  to  do 
which  is  beyond  the  possibilities  of  even 
such  a  lodging  house  as  is  here  shown 


We  can  do  noth- 
%■,£  ing  without  money, 
any  more  than  you 
could.  But  we  do 
as  much  with  the 
little  we  get  as  any- 
human  organiza- 
tion can.  Even 
one  dollar  will  be 
a  help. 


Courtesy  of  the 


a  Institute,  New  Y«rk  City 


As  the  direct  results  of  giving  are  more  valuable 
than  the  gifts  themselves,  so  the  indirect  results  of 
the  cooperative  clearing  house  for  givers  and  ap- 
pealers would  be  more  important  than  the  tremen- 
dous direct  results.  Indirectly  everybody  in  the 
land  would  be  helped  because  informed.  Facts 
would  be  utilized  by  givers,  will  makers,  will  drawers, 


FIVE  YEAR  TEST  OF  CLEARING  HOUSE     293 

philanthropic  agencies,  newspapers,  teachers.  A 
new  sociology  would  develop  because  philanthropy 
and  government  would  see  themselves  against  a  back- 
ground of  needs  not  met.  Appealers  would  tend  to 
appeal  up  to  the  public's  knowledge.  Givers  would 
not  close  their  minds  so  readily  if  they  knew  that 
the  fact  of  their  closure  would  be  shown  in  a  list  of 
their  opportunities  rejected.  As  efficient  local  char- 
ity organization  societies  appreciably  reduce  the 
number  of  begging  letter  writers  and  street  mendi- 
cants while  increasing  the  number  of  individuals 
helped  and  the  number  who  apply  directly  for  help, 
so  a  central  clearing  house  would,  in  proportion  as 
it  became  known,  appreciably  decrease  the  number 
of  inveterate  or  inconsequential  letter  writers. 

Would  you  keep  on  writing  letters  of  appeal  after 
receiving  a  prompt,  sympathetic  but  direct  letter 
from  a  clearing  house  beginning,  "  Dear  Madam : 
We  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  re- 
spective letters  addressed  to  the  Mesdames  A,  B,  C, 
D,  E,  F,  G,  H;  the  Misses  I,  J,  K,  L,  and  Messrs. 
M,  N,  O,  P,  Q,"  etc,  etc?  Would  victims  of  malad- 
justments, unsanitary  administration  and  rural  iso- 
lation be  discouraged  from  making  known  their 
genuine  needs  if  they  received  letters  asking  for 
more  details  about  efforts  already  made  to  secure 
loans  or  hospital  treatment? 

Cost  of  a  Five  Year  Test 
In  five  years  a  clearing  house  starting  with  ten 
cooperators   or  stockholders   would   handle   at   least 


294,  MODERN'  PHILANTHROPY 

200,000  appeals,  of  which  probably  50,000  would  be 
duplicates.  The  postage  alone  of  acknowledgments 
would  be  $3,000.  The  cost  of  second  and  third  let- 
ters would  offset  an  excessive  estimate  for  sending 
postal  card  or  printed  acknowledgments. 

The  cost  of  writing  and  addressing  acknowledg- 
ments and  letters  would  be  probably  $30,000.  The 
rental  of  space  necessary  for  receiving,  filing  and 
answering  letters  would  be  in  New  York  City  about 
$15,000.  For  clerical  help  and  miscellaneous  ex- 
pense add  at  least  $50,000  and  for  direction  and 
study  at  least  $100,000. 

Thus  for  collecting  information  and  directing 
educational  work  with  appealers  a  total  of  $198,000, 
—  about  one  tenth  the  income  for  five  years  of  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation, —  would  be  required.  It 
would  save  each  of  the  cooperators  more  money  than 
his  share  of  the  total  cost.  At  the  same  time  it 
would  not  only  increase  the  efficiency  of  his  giving 
but  immeasurably  increase  the  efficiency  of  all  giv- 
ing, large  and  small,  through  private  philanthropy 
and  taxes. 

All  of  the  program  above  detailed  on  pages  282- 
292  including  maintenance  of  a  museum,  laboratory 
instruction  and  distribution  of  reports  could  be  con- 
ducted for  considerably  less  than  the  income  of  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation. 

Organization  of  a  Clearing  House 

Cooperating  stockholders;  one  or  more  directors; 
scientifically  trained  investigators;  trained  teachers 


CLEARING  APPEALS  ORGANIZATION     t08 

as  interviewers,  editors,  writers  of  reports,  corre- 
spondents and  museum  directors ;  supervisors  of  re- 
search classes;  stenographers,  filing  clerks,  office 
boys;  lecturers,  collaborating  agencies  and  individu- 
als in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  who  would  gra- 
tuitously or  for  a  fee  secure  information ;  appealing 
agencies  and  individuals  glad  to  furnish  information 
gratuitously. 

Previous  Tests  of  the  Clearing  House  Idea  as 
Worked   out  by   Givers 

Most  of  the  elements  of  the  proposed  clearing 
house  have  already  been  tried  out.  That  greater 
headway  is  not  recorded  is  due  primarily  to  the  fact 
that  the  cohesive  and  educational  influence  of  the 
not-yet-done,  and  of  the  public  as  client,  has  been 
overlooked.  Ten  plans  of  cooperation  that  are 
more  or  less  rudimentary  have  thus  far  been  tried 
in  America: 

1.  The     General     Education     Board's     records 

which,  as  Mr.  Rockefeller  says,  are  open  to 
inspection  by  givers 

2.  The  Carnegie  Foundation's   facts   about  col- 

leges 

3.  Charities  directories 

4.  Supervision    of  minor   charities   by   a   major 

charity 

5.  Bureau    of    advice    and    information    about 

charities  by  one  charity 

6.  The   certification   of  charities  by   a   chamber 

of  commerce  or  other  independent  commit- 
tee 


296  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

7.  A  consolidated   appeal  by   a  certifying  com- 

mittee 

8.  Division  of  territory  by  "  gentlemen's  agree- 

ment " 

9.  Joint  appealing 

10.  Combination  of  private  charities  to  secure 
contributions  from  all  of  the  public  through 
taxes 

i,  2  —  The    General    Education    Board's    Records 

Which   are   Open   to   Inspection  by   Givers, 

and  the  Carnegie  Foundation's  Facts 

About  Colleges 

The  first  purpose  of  a  clearing  house  is  to  clear. 
As  yet  the  General  Education  Board  and  the  Car- 
negie Foundation  have  not  been  public  clearing 
houses.  They  never  can  be  until  they  give  a  com- 
plete list  of  their  appeals  with  explanations  for  both 
rejections  and  for  gifts.  So  potent  is  information 
that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  informa- 
tion about  educational  forces  in  the  United  States 
which  is  possessed  by  these  two  great  bodies  would 
help  education  more  if  put  into  general  circulation 
than  have  their  efficiency  tests  and  their  millions 
given  away.  Thanks  to  the  string  which  it  attaches 
to  its  pension  fund,  the  Carnegie  Foundation  has 
accomplished  wonders  in  standardizing  the  methods 
and  the  ideals  of  colleges.  The  clearing  house  for 
givers  would  take  information  to  givers  and  public 
instead  of  waiting  to  be  specially  asked. 


EFFORTS  TO  CLEAR  APPEALS   297 

3  The   Charities   Directory 

This  is  a  great  asset  for  any  city.  It  gives  a 
complete  picture  of  what  organized  private  philan- 
thropy is  trying  to  do.  To  date  charities  directo- 
ries have  lacked  a  complete  picture  of  what  the 
same  public  is  trying  to  do  through  taxes,  and  any 
picture  whatever  of  the  gap  between  what  is  aimed 
at  and  what  is  accomplished  by  either  public  or 
private  activities.  So  long  as  these  directories  are 
published  by  one  of  the  leading  private  agencies 
that  must  itself  compete  for  funds,  inter-agency  eti- 
quette and  a  lively  sense  of  the  society's  own  inter- 
est will  prevent  the  listing  of  needs  not-yet-being- 
met  or  of  needs  being  partially  met  in  an  ineffi- 
cient way.  Wherefore  charities  directories  dis- 
claim responsibility  for  statements  of  fact  or  claims 
of  efficiency.  So  far  as  I  know  no  charities  direc- 
tory has  ever  even  taken  the  position  that  no  agency 
may  appear  which  fails  to  give  the  minimum  of 
essential  indexes  to  efficiency. 

One  of  the  letters  that  came  to  Mrs.  Harriman 
was  written  by  a  mother  who  had  two  children  in 
an  institution,  among  whose  trustees  were  men  of 
unquestioned  standing.  The  institution  itself  oc- 
cupied an  honored  position  in  a  charities  directory. 
A  brief  investigation  verified  every  one  of  the  seri- 
ous charges  made  by  the  alleged  "  irresponsible 
mother."  As  it  happened,  our  investigation  was 
concurrent  with  an  investigation  by  the  board  of 
that  institution  which  led  to  the  resignation  of  the 


298  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

superintendent.  My  point  is  that  it  was  through 
no  interest  or  intelligence  on  the  part  of  any  certi- 
fying agency  that  these  allegations  were  run  down 
and  the  cause  dismissed. 

4  Supervision  of  Minor  Charities  by  a  Major 
Charity 

The  confidential  report  of  one  charity  regarding  , 
the  reputability  of  other  private  charities  is  one 
application  of  the  clearing  house  idea.  It  is,  how- 
ever, usually  applied  only  to  so-called  minor  chari- 
ties. Three  reasons  for  this  are  (1)  that  it  is 
easier  for  givers  to  learn  about  major  charities; 
(2)  major  charities  are  apt  to  have  well-known, 
reputable  directors;  and  (3)  the  certifying  agency's 
information  is  usually  limited  to  the  reputability  of 
charities  and  their  programs  and  does  not  cover  the 
efficiency  of  work  done. 

Major  charities  resent  having  appeals  made  to 
one  of  their  number  for  information  regarding  their 
reliability.  This  is  natural  and  unavoidable,  and 
the  reason  why  a  clearing  house  should  represent 
primarily  donors  and  public  instead  of  one  or  more 
appealers.  It  is  too  much  to  hope  that  one  agency 
in  the  open  market  appealing  for  funds  to  the  same 
people  who  support  agencies  reviewed  by  it  will 
have  the  moral  courage  or  perspective  to  get  and 
tell  the  truth  impartially. 


EFFORTS  TO  CLEAR  APPEALS   299 

5  Bureau  of  Advice  and  Information  About  Chari- 
ties Maintained  by  One  Charity 

Wherever  the  charity  organization  movement  has 
developed  strength  it  has  attempted  to  build  up  a 
bureau  of  advice  and  information  where  subscrib- 
ers may  secure  confidential  reports  regarding  indi- 
viduals, other  charitable  agencies  and  opportunities 
to  give.  This  generally  includes  a  black  list  and 
sometimes  a  rogues'  gallery  of  professional  mendi- 
cants or  impostures.  Serviceable  as  are  such  bu- 
reaus, they  lack  the  independence  necessary  to  treat 
strong  rivals  with  the  same  candor  with  which  they 
treat  weak  and  struggling  agencies  or  individual 
impostors.  They  cannot  convey  information  which 
they  do  not  possess,  which  means  that  in  most  in- 
stances they  are  unable  to  go  beyond  the  apparent 
integrity  and  responsibility  of  trustees.  Because 
their  client  is  not  the  public,  because  their  interest 
centers  in  those  who  are  doing  the  work  rather  than 
in  work  that  needs  to  be  done,  they  are  not  really 
clearing  houses  for  opportunities  to  give.  The 
nearest  exception  to  this  to  date  is  at  105  E.  22, 
New  York  City,  Miss  Mina  Bruere,  director. 

A  head  of  such  bureau  who  sees  needs  and  covets 
standards  of  efficiency  in  giving,  usually  finds  him- 
self in  a  position  where,  if  he  tells  the  whole  truth 
about  many  a  major  philanthropy,  he  will  be  say- 
ing over  the  signature  of  one  or  more  of  the  men 
who  employ  him  that  these  same  men,  when  acting 


300  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

as    trustees     for    other    boards,    are     incompetent, 
wasteful  or  reactionary. 

6  The  Certification  of  Charities  by  a  Chamber  of 

Commerce  or  Other  Independent  Committee 

Two  steps  have  been  taken  by  persons  receiving 
appeals  to  obviate  the  embarrassment  and  limita- 
tions of  the  charities  directory  or  bureau  of  advice 
and  information  maintained  by  a  competing  char- 
ity. One  is  plain  "  certification  "  or  endorsement. 
Because  it  costs  money  to  get  information  necessary 
to  refuse  to  certify  an  agency  for  any  other  cause 
than  flagrant  dishonesty  or  imposture,  this  scheme 
almost  always  becomes  a  mere  certification  of  the 
men  who  run  different  agencies  or  of  their  pro- 
grams. 

A  donors'  committee  representing  a  desire  to  de- 
crease the  number  of  appeals  or  to  check  impos- 
ture is  almost  certain  to  contain  officers  of  compet- 
ing agencies.  This  means  wire  pulling,  unconscious 
if  not  intentional  favoritism,  putting  agencies  on 
probation,  etc,  and  extreme  conservatism  with  re- 
spect to  ideas  not  already  backed  by  "  men  of  sub- 
stance." 

7  A    Consolidated    Appeal   by   a   Certifying   Com- 

mittee 

Certification  does  not  decrease  the  number  of  ap- 
peals or  correlate  their  stories  or  show  needs  not 
met.     To  date  the  most  comprehensive  plan  for  a 


CLEVELAND'S  CLEARING  PLAN       301 

clearing  house  of  appealers  and  givers  has  been 
worked  out  by  the  Cleveland  Chamber  of  Commerce 
(which  is  now  looking  for  the  right  man  to  execute 
that  plan)  ;  100%  of  the  reported  contributions  to 
various  philanthropies  have  been  listed  and  a  card 
index  kept  showing  each  giver's  total.  Assuming 
that  all  certified  work  needs  to  be  continued,  it  is 
now  proposed  to  send  to  all  givers  not  one  or  two 
or  four  appeals  a  year  from  each  agency,  but  one 
consolidated  appeal  summarizing  the  work  done  and 
asking  each  donor  to  give  at  least  as  much  through 
the  central  committee  as  he  has  been  giving  sepa- 
rately to  respective  agencies.  The  giver  is  to  have 
the  privilege  of  specifying  where  he  wants  his 
money  to  go.  All  unspecified  donations  are  to  make 
up  the  deficits  between  amounts  definitely  given  for 
institutions   and  the  total  needed. 

Out  of  this  is  expected  to  grow  progressive  em- 
phasis on  work  remaining  to  be  done.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  the  influence  upon  the  ac- 
crediting committee  will  be  in  proportion  to  the 
strength  and  wealth  of  appealing  agencies  which 
will  never  be  willing  to  have  pointed  out,  in  their 
name  at  least,  the  part  of  their  field  which  they 
fail  to  cover.  No  scheme  of  certification  that  starts 
with  boards  of  directors,  or  even  with  methods  of 
spending  money,  can  ever  accomplish  as  much  as  a 
certification  of  work  left  undone.  Therefore,  the 
best  protection  to  the  donor  is  in  a  complete  list 
of  things  remaining  to  be  done.     We  could  almost 


302  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

afford  to  do  without  the  directory  of  agencies,  if 
we  had  a  complete  directory  that  showed  (1)  in  one 
column  the  work  to  be  done,  (2)  in  a  second  column 
percentage  of  work  already  done,  and  (3)  in  column 
three  percentage  of  work  remaining  to  be  done. 

The  appeal  is  the  best  index  of  needs.  The 
clearing  house  for  appeals  is  the  best  charities  di- 
rectory. 

The  first  test  of  such  directory  will  be  made  not 
by  a  representative  body  with  interminable  inter- 
lacing interests,  but  by  one  person  or  ten  who  will 
regard  it  as  an  educational  opportunity  and  pro- 
vide the  funds  to  guarantee  a  five  year  test. 

8  Division  of   Territory  by   "  Gentlemen's   Agree- 
ment " 

Competition  has  forced  gentlemen's  agreements 
among  charitable  agencies  as  well  as  among  rail- 
roads, not  so  much  to  prevent  embarrassment  for 
"  cases  "  or  to  save  waste  for  donors  as  to  stop  an- 
noyance and  embarrassment  to  competing  agencies. 
Relief  societies,  hospitals,  clinics  have  decided  in 
most  large  cities  not  to  duplicate  one  another's 
work  with  the  same  family  or  patient  or  "  case." 
Thus  clearing  houses  for  names  and  addresses  have 
been  established,  or  an  automatic  transfer  agreed 
upon  which  will  compel  a  "  case  "  to  seek  relief  at 
that  dispensary  or  hospital  or  relief  society  which 
has  headquarters  nearest  his  residence. 

By  sheer  force  and  power  of  illumination  of  the 


From  American  Sunday  School  Union 

A  FRIEND  IN  A  STRANGE 
CITY 


Loaned  by  Wuite  Rom  Indnitrial  Auoclation,  N.  Y.  City 

A  YEAR'S  RECORD 

320  girls  were  assisted  by  the  Agent  at  the 
New  York  Wharf. 

945  girls  were  assisted  by  the  Agent  at  the 
Norfolk  piers  and  railroads. 


TYPICAL  OF  NEEDS  NOT  YET  ADEQUATELY  FINANCED  AND 
ACTUALLY    IGNORED   BY   ORGANIZED  AGENCIES 


EFFORTS  TO  CLEAR  APPEALS   303 

facts  cleared  by  dividing  the  field  and  by  keeping 
out  of  one  another's  way,  agencies  see  the  value  of 
working  together. 

9  Joint  Appealing 

Wherever  the  merging  of  appeals  is  first  dis- 
cussed fear  is  always  expressed  that  two  agencies 
will  divide  rather  than  double  their  appealing  power 
by  combining.  This  fear  is  based  upon  the  as- 
sumption that  givers  have  their  eyes  upon  some 
arbitrary  minimum  or  maximum  which  they  dis- 
tribute per  agency  or  per  response  to  appeal  rather 
than  per  kind  of  work  done. 

The  best  answer  to  this  scepticism  is  experience. 
The  joint  appeals  by  Jewish  charities  have  always 
increased  the  total  given  by  the  community.  When 
the  appealing  power  of  all  benevolent  activities  is 
leveled  against  each  communicant  he  seems  to  give 
more  than  when  that  appeal  comes  in  twenty  or 
fifty  different  envelopes.  Money  came  so  easily  in 
Chicago  that  one  prominent  Jew  who  had  worked 
for  federated  appealing  told  me  that  they  had  not 
only  doubled  their  contributions,  besides  raising 
$800,000  for  a  Jewish  hospital,  but  got  money  so 
easily  that  "  there  is  no  incentive  to  economy." 

When  Jewish  experience  is  cited  non-Jewish  agen- 
cies say,  "  Jews  are  different."  But  here  again 
the  answer  is  experience.  When  the  two  non-Jew- 
ish, non-Catholic  relief  agencies  of  Chicago  com- 
bined to  describe  the  whole  of  their  work  and  the 


304  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

whole   of   their  needs,   their   relief   fund  jumped   in 
the  first  year  from  $140,000  to  $250,000. 

The  lesson  in  this  for  a  clearing  house  of  appeals 
is  that  clearing  and  centering  pictures  of  need 
gives  the  public  a  truer  impression  and  stimulates 
a  more  genuine  and  more  personal  interest.  But  it 
is  the  massing  of  information  about  needs,  and  not 
the  massing  of  names  on  a  letterhead  or  a  con- 
tributing list,  that  produces  this  effect. 

io  Combination    of    Private    Charities    to    Secure 

Contributions  from   all  of  the   Public 

Through  Taxes 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  clearing  house  of  phil- 
anthropic effort  is  where  we  find  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  a  clearing  house  of  fact,  namely,  philan- 
thropy for  schools,  health  work,  hospital  work,  care 

THE     LAITY     LEAGUE. 

FOB  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

CALL  TO  MEETING. 
The  tentative  budgets,  of  many  departments  have  been 
greatly  increased.  These  and  the  hudgetB  which  show  little  in- 
crease demand  most  careful  study.  The  time  'is  short  for  tho 
work  there  is  to  do.  Ycm  are,  therefore,  requested  to  have  a- 
representative  present  without  fail  and,  if  some  portion  of  the 
"budget  has  "been  assigned  to  you  for  studyi  ta  hring  a  report 
even  though  it  be  a  partial  one. 

This  call  is  being  sent  to  between  55  and  60  Organization? 
interested  in  some  phase  of  civic  life  of  Greater  New  York  or 
some  part  of  it. 


CLEARING   NEEDS   THROUGH   TAXES     305 

of  children,  care  of  the  aged,  juvenile  probation, 
etc.  Not  only  will  the  proposed  clearing  house 
show  where  philanthropy  through  taxation  is  weak 
or  breaks  down,  but  it  will  contribute  important  in- 
formation of  supreme  helpfulness  to  these  agencies 
of  all  the  people.  The  massing  of  needs-not-met 
will  force  the  public  over  and  over  again  to  decide 
in  which  direction  and  to  what  degree  it  wishes  to 
develop  philanthropy  via  taxation. 

Objections  to  a   Clearing  House 

Will  it  take  the  soul  out  of  charity  or  give  that 

soul  a  chance? 
Is  it  mechanical  in  any  sense  that  does  not  apply 

to  the  telescope,  microscope  or  moving  picture? 
Will  it  discourage  appealers  to  know  that  needs 

are  being  looked  for? 
Will  it  discourage  givers  to  know  that  their  ex- 
periences  and   opportunities   are  being  put  to 

nation  wide   educational   uses? 
Will  it  discourage  confidences  or  make  them  more 

worth  while? 
Will  it  disturb  the  status  quo  in  any  other  way 

than  by  putting  a  premium  on  permanence  and 

comprehensiveness  of  service? 
Will  it  dry  up  the  fountains  of  philanthropy  to 

broaden  and  deepen   their  outlets? 

The 

Truth  About  the  Cigarette 

from  a 

Scientific  Standpoint 


Who  Are  the  Givers? 

There  is  a  general  impression  here,  as  well  as 
abroad,  that  almost  every  American  is  charitably 
inclined,  and,  if  he  live  in  a  city,  that  he  is  actively 
helping  one  or  more  benevolent  enterprises.  No 
less  an  authority  than  our  own  Ambassador  Choate 
recently  voiced  this  impression  by  prophesying  that 
the  supply  of  charitable  impulse  would  soon  exceed 
the  demand  for  it  and  leave  no  needy  class  bat 
brokendown  bridge  players.  I  once  heard  the  same 
conviction  expressed  by  the  octogenarian  wise  man 
of  an  inland  Prussian  village, —  "  Every  American, 
no  matter  how  young  or  how  old,  must  be  organized 
in  good  work  until  those  who  belong  to  no  society  go 
off  by  themselves  and  organize  a  Society  of  the  Un- 
organized." Nevertheless,  surrounded  as  we  are  by 
innumerable  charities,  and  feeling,  as  we  do,  that 
everybody  must  be  helping  at  least  one  of  them, 
you  and  I  can  count  among  our  acquaintances  or  in 
our  own  community,  a  surprisingly  small  number  of 
men  and  women  reputed  to  be  charitable.  Is  then 
real  charity  so  rare;  is  it  so  common  that  we  fail 
to  recognize  it;  or  have  the  words  charitable,  public 
spirited,  benevolent  become  so  conventionalized  that 
they  no  longer  include  the  greater  part  of  those 
acts  and  motives  which  they  originally  defined? 

If  a  servant  girl  is  known  to  deny  herself  pleas- 
ures and  even  comforts  in  order  to  help  a  peasant 

306 


WHO  ARE  THE  GIVERS?  307 

friend  who  has  just  come  from  home,  or  to  bring 
her  nephew  to  our  land  of  opportunity ;  if  she  goes 
to  church  regularly  and  pays  for  her  seat,  we  re- 
gard her  as  we  regard  her  wealthy  mistress  who 
aids  her  poor  relations,  pays  church  and  club  dues 
and  pensions  aged  servants, —  she  may  be  generous, 
good  hearted,  religious,  but  she  is  not  called  charita- 
ble. 

In  behalf  of  the  child  laborer  a  legislator  may  re- 
sist the  party  whip  and  sacrifice  his  political  future 
for  his  zeal  in  securing  legislation  opposed  by  influ- 
ential constituents.  We  deny  him  the  reputation 
we  gladly  concede  those  very  constituents  for  sub- 
scribing $£5  each  to  a  volunteer  child  saving  com- 
mittee. A  pastor  may  lose  his  position  for  preach- 
ing too  frequently  that  it  is  impossible  for  people 
to  be  truly  religious  without  being  public  spirited. 
Would  he  call  himself  charitable?  Or  the  man  who 
guides  an  aged  woman  across  the  street,  shows  a 
stranger  to  a  safe  hotel,  reduces  the  cost  of  some 
universal  necessity,  invents  cheaper  means  of  com- 
munication or  places  wholesome  recreation  within 
reach  of  the  masses? 

A  professional  man  sacrifices  recreation,  income) 
home  pleasures  to  devote  himself  to  a  board  of  edu- 
cation, park  commission  or  municipal  hospital.  He 
may>  by  reorganizing  business  methods,  effect  econ- 
omies that  aggregate  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  yearly ;  he  may  almost  singlehanded  conduct 
a  campaign  resulting  in  a  ten  million  dollar  hospital 


308  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

or  a  series  of  breathing  spaces  for  the  overworked 
and  underfed.  A  prominent  lady  may  visit  hospital, 
tenement,  kindergarten  or  school.  But  mere  mem- 
bership on  boards  or  mere  visiting  will  not  earn  the 
name  charitable.  As  in  the  case  of  the  unpaid  com- 
missioner or  director,  despite  public  spirit,  aggres- 
siveness, self  sacrifice,  she  will  be  regarded  as  chari- 
table by  fewer  friends  than  if  she  were  to  send  10 
five  dollar  checks  on  Easter  morning  to  as  many 
good  causes. 

A  paid  relief  visitor  may  climb  stairs  in  crowded 
districts  until  eight  or  nine  o'clock  at  night  when 
summer  heat  and  winter  cold  are  at  their  worst;  an 
anaemic  teacher  may  deny  herself  outings  and  rest  to 
help  a  backward  or  ambitious  pupil;  a  secretary, 
like  Robert  M.  Hartley,  may  impart  information 
that  leads  to  munificent  gifts  and  to  improvements 
in  a  city's  standard  of  happiness.  An  editor  or 
publisher  may  devote  column  after  colmun  to  meri- 
torious philanthropies  whereby  dishonest  but  ingen- 
ious pretension  is  unmasked,  lessons  given  in  caring 
for  babies  for  homes,  superstitions  shattered,  and 
true  ideas  of  charity  expounded.  Yet  like  the 
teacher  and  social  worker,  editors  consider  such 
service  incidental  to  their  profession,  reserving  the 
term  charitable  for  their  money  gifts,  large  or  small, 
to  societies  that  teach  mothers  by  the  dozen  once  a 
week  where  the  editor  reaches  tens  of  thousands 
daily. 

Public  sentiment  erects  and  supports  by  taxes  the 


WHO  ARE  THE  CHARITABLE?       809 

free  school,  the  hospital  for  the  diseased  mind  or 
body,  training  schools  for  the  moral  delinquent  and 
the  blind,  legal  and  medical  dispensaries  for  the  pro- 
tection of  property,  health  and  life.  Taxpayers 
who  regularly  ignore  appeals  for  philanthropic  pur- 
poses, pay  gladly  every  assessment  for  almshouse 
and  reformatory,  for  cleaning  streets  and  for  in- 
spection to  insure  wholesome  meat,  pure  milk  and 
sanitary  tenements.  Moreover,  they  resent  and  re- 
sist every  attempt  to  decrease  the  efficiency  of  these 
public  activities.  Who  ever  thought  of  applying 
the  term  charitable  to  public  sentiment,  a  city  gov- 
ernment, a  taxpayer,  or  the  act  of  paying  taxes  to 
improve  the  condition  in  which  the  poor  live?  Yet 
if  that  same  taxpayer  gives  ten  dollars  for  a  col- 
ored kindergarten,  a  settlement  playground,  a  relief 
society's  bath  house,  clinic  or  diet  kitchen,  presto! 
he  is  charitable. 

In  short  we  have  stripped  the  word  of  its  orig- 
inal content  until  its  scope  is  infinitesimal  compared 
to  that  of  kind,  generous,  goodhearted,  religious. 
Once  intended  to  denote  motive  it  now  refers  to  an 
act,  a  mere  badge  or  certificate  awarded  by  charita- 
ble and  non-charitable  alike  to  two  classes  of  adult: 
the  Large  Giver  to  one  or  more  charities  and  the 
Small  Giver  to  a  large  number  of  charities.  Be- 
lieving sincerely  that  the  supply  of  charitable  peo- 
ple is,  like  that  of  diamonds,  limited  by  decree  of 
nature  and  that  the  chief  centers  are  already  lo- 
cated, experienced  money  raisers  devote  their  energy 


310  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

to  exploiting  resources  already  discovered  rather 
than  to  exploring  for  new  givers.  We  crib  from 
each  others'  lists  of  contributors  until  the  already 
charitable  receive  innumerable  appeals  and  the  not- 
yet-charitable  receive  none.  The  consequence  is 
general  deficit:  fiscal  deficit, —  bills  unpaid,  debts  in- 
curred or  legacies  consumed;  and  social  deficit, — 
work  undone,  new  societies  stepping  in  to  fill  the 
gaps  by  "  jumping  claims  "  already  staked  out  in 
existing  lists. 

How  restricted  are  these  known  resources  few 
realize  unless  familiar  with  efforts  to  raise  funds 
for  work  among  the  needy  or  other  uplift  work. 

That  the  aggregate  of  givers  in  whatever  town 

—  always  in  great  part  duplicates  —  is  unneces- 
sarily small,  must  be  our  unanimous  judgment  if 
we  stop  to  think  of  the  hearts  and  minds  of  those 
about  us,  our  friends,  associates,  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, brokers,  teachers,  the  fireman,  policeman, 
newsboy,  employe,  employer,  yes,  the  very  unfor- 
tunate or  less  fortunate  we  aim  to  help.  To  "  real- 
ize "  on  this  never  failing  human  interest,  sym- 
pathy  with   distress   and  joy   in   giving  happiness, 

—  to  convert  motive  into  deed  —  is  a  task  involving 
more  study,  more  facts  and  a  higher  order  of  abil- 
ity than  have  hitherto  been  thought  necessary  for 
appealing. 


Present  Methods  of  Reaching  Givers 

At  present  our  philanthropic  activities  rely  chiefly 
upon  "  personal  equation  "  methods  of  raising  funds. 
Mrs.  Earnest  lunches  with  Mrs.  Gushing  and  de- 
scribes a  visit  to  a  day  nursery  that  is  suffering 
dreadfully  for  want  of  money;  Miss  Prominent  in- 
vites a  selected  list  to  a  parlor  meeting  where  the 
needs  of  some  worthy  hospital  or  church  club  are 
touchingly  presented ;  a  wealthy  treasurer,  annoyed 
by  a  deficit,  asks  a  business  associate  or  his  vis-a-vis 
at  dinner  to  help  him  out.  Calculating,  even  im- 
pulsive, men  and  women  with  special  interests  soon 
learn  that  this  method  of  raising  money  is  expensive : 
"  give  me  $25  today  for  my  charity  and  tomorrow 
I  will  gladly  give  you  $25  for  yours  " ;  one  cannot 
afford  too  many  friends  who  go  about  doing  good. 

After  appeals  in  person  begin  to  affect  one's  in- 
vitations to  dinner  and  to  other  social  functions, 
when  friends  learn  to  seek  the  other  side  of  the  cafe 
or  laboriously  direct  conversation  into  every  other 
field  but  altruism,  the  paid  collector  is  tried.  At 
first  a  middle  aged  man  or  woman,  versed  in  biblical 
injunctions  regarding  "  the  greatest  of  these,"  then 
a  younger  woman  of  charming,  winning  ways,  and 
finally  a  man  or  woman,  oftentimes  superlatively  re- 
pulsive, but  possessed  of  a  gluelike  persistence  that 

is  sure  to  win  some  contribution  if  once  granted  a 

311 


312  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

hearing.  I  recall  one  instance  where  by  the  evolu- 
tion above  outlined  a  society  succeeded  in  changing 
a  $500  contribution  first  to  $300,  later  to  $100, 
thence  via  $50  and  $25  to  the  message  "  out,"  cul- 
minating in  the  polite  request  never  to  come  to  the 
office  again. 

The  endless  chain  method  of  extending  member- 
ship by  personal  appeal  is  open  to  the  same  criti- 
cism, that  while  it  is  seemingly  productive  at  the 
outset,  the  larger  part  of  the  supporters  in  many  in- 
stances are  convinced  against  their  will,  hence  eas- 
ily lost. 

Three  radical  defects  make  it  impossible  in  cities 
that  have  outgrown  village  clothes  and  customs  to 
build  up  a  constructive  social  work  by  these  methods 
alone : 

(1)  The  claim,  being  personal,  is  often  not  ne- 
gotiable and  is  therefore  not  a  society  asset 

(2)  Involuntary  support  is  quite  as  apt  to 
weaken  as  to  strengthen  a  society's  hold  upon 
its  community 

(3)  The  promoting  of  benevolence  is  so  unlike 
life  insurance,  lightning  rod,  patent  medicine, 
subscription  book  and  cosmetic  business  that  it 
should  be  advertised  in  an  entirely  different 
way  and  supported  from  entirely  different  mo- 
tives 

To  meet  the  deficits  occasioned  by  reliance  upon 
personal  equation  methods  of  securing  support,  phi- 
lanthropy has  resorted   to  "  city  help 


PRESENT  METHODS  OF  APPEALING     Sift 

money."  With  few  exceptions  this  subsidy  plan  is 
a  delusion  and  a  snare,  a  blight  to  both  private  and 
public  benevolence,  an  accessory  before  and  after 
the  fact  of  political  demoralization.  In  the  state 
of  Pennsylvania,  for  example,  vast  sums  of  money 
are  voted  by  each  legislature  for  private  hospitals 
and  charities.  These  sums  bear  no  definite  relation 
to  the  good  done  by  the  beneficiaries.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  has  been  openly  charged  that  the  only 
measure  that  has  as  yet  been  discovered  for  these 
gifts  is  the  willingness  of  the  charitable  managers 
to  share  their  state  appropriation  with  the  friendly 
legislator,  or  to  contribute  moral  and  financial  sup- 
port to  his  campaign  fund.  One  classical  illustra- 
tion, publication  of  which  in  the  press  caused  not 
even  a  denial,  is  that  of  a  hospital  officer  who  as- 
sured his  board  that  he  could  obtain  a  large  gift 
from  the  legislature  on  one  condition,  i.e.,  that 
"  $20,000  be  voted  him  and  no  questions  asked." 
The  money  was  voted,  and  the  vote  "  delivered  the 
goods."  A  few  weeks  after  the  moral  upheaval  of 
1905  that  revealed  Philadelphia  to  the  world  as  cor- 
rupt but  no  longer  contented,  a  teacher  told  me 
that  it  had  been  impossible  for  his  father  to  oppose 
the  re-election  of  a  notoriously  corrupt  candidate 
because  this  man  had,  as  state  representative,  se- 
cured large  appropriations  for  a  certain  hospital. 
In  every  section  of  the  United  States  experience  has 
proved  that  presents  by  the  public  to  charitable  or- 
ganizations have  a  tendency  to  withdraw  from  active 


314  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

interest  in  movements  for  civic  betterment,  large 
numbers  of  the  very  men  and  women  who  see  most 
clearly  the  need  for  such  movements.  Quite  natu- 
rally do  people  living  in  glass  houses  grow  conserva- 
tive. 

Assuming,  however,  that  public  money  need  not 
paralyze  the  civic  interest  of  beneficiary  societies, 
and  admitting  for  sake  of  argument  that  certain 
educational  and  hospital  facilities  should  be  com- 
pensated for  lifting  burdens  from  the  taxpayer, — 
such  compensation  to  be  determined  by  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  service  rendered, —  there  is  yet  great 
danger  that  societies  will  rely  too  much  upon  this 
source  of  revenue  and  grow  weary  in  efforts  to  in- 
terest the  whole  community  in  their  needs.  In  the 
absence  of  a  vast  amount  of  advertising  to  the  con- 
trary, the  mere  presence  of  public  subsidy  encour- 
ages the  impression  that  private  aid  is  not  needed. 
At  any  rate  it  is  significant  that  almost  without  ex- 
ception societies  that  have  discontinued  the  "  city 
help  "  method  of  raising  money  have  obtained  more 
money  from  volunteer  contributors  alone  than  those 
same  societies  obtained  from  all  sources  while  still 
receiving  city  help. 

Many  societies  eke  out  a  precarious  existence  by 
relying  upon  the  Indirect  Appeal,  namely,  lawn 
parties,  entertainments,  euchres,  balls,  alms  boxes, 
church  collections.  Most  welcome  as  a  supplement, 
this  method  is  fraught  with  too  many  "  ifs  "  to  be 
a  satisfactory  mainstay.     What  if  it  rains  on  Hos- 


CHARITY  BALL  APPEALS  315 

pital  Sunday?  Who  wants  ice  cream  if  a  cold  wave 
comes?  Will  the  distant  neighbors  learn  of  the 
change  in  date?  Unfortunately  only  pennies  and 
nickels  show  in  the  alms  box.  Mr.  Stingy  started 
the  lawn  collection  with  fifty  cents  whereas  Mr.  Gen- 
erous would  have  given  $2.00.  Or  perhaps  the 
minister  talked  so  long  that,  like  Marie  Twain,  we 
found  our  $100  interest  in  the  cause  slowly  dwindle 
to  a  feeling  that  the  plate  owed  us  carfare  home. 
Wealthy  business  men  have  been  known  to  discount 
obligations  to  hospitals  and  other  charities  by 
anonymous  gifts  through  church  collections  commen- 
surate with  neither  their  ability  to  give  nor  the  needs 
of  the  cause  assisted.  Likewise  patronesses  might 
be  persuaded  to  give  directly  $10,  $50,  $250  or 
even  $500  if  we  did  not  encourage  them  to  spend 
those  sums  in  an  effort  to  give  our  work  $1  or  $5 
by  way  of  the  Charity  Ball.  Moreover,  unless  care- 
fully guarded  the  entertainment  appeal  becomes  a 
very  expensive  method  of  raising  a  relatively  small 
fund.  What  is  even  more  important,  it  is  difficult 
to  make  sure  that  permanent  friends  are  gained  for 
the  work  itself. 

Nevertheless  this  method  has  vast  educational 
possibilities  if  its  uncertainties  and  its  limitations  are 
understood,  if  its  enthusiasm  is  expended  in  win- 
ning new  friends,  and  if  accompanied  by  efforts  to 
secure  sustained  and  direct  personal  support.  A 
description  of  the  work  by  one  familiar  with  the 
spirit  or  by  illustrated  picture  card  and  stereopticon 


316  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

may  easily  arouse  a  sense  of  personal  responsibility. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  possible 
gains  to  charitable  work  of  the  stories  that  summer 
boys  and  girls  and  their  elders  will  tell  for  a  life 
time  about  the  circus,  fair  and  festival  that  sent 
hundreds  of  tenement  mothers,  babies  and  grand- 
mothers to  the  country  or  seashore,  where  a  year's 
recreation  and  rest  are  crowded  into  a  week  or 
maybe  one  day. 

Neither  singly  nor  combined  do  the  foregoing 
methods,  even  when  unusually  fruitful,  reach  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  possible  givers  to  test  fairly  the 
public's  interest  in  any  particular  form  of  altruistic 
effort.  Bills  may  be  paid ;  to  all  appearances  the 
work  may  be  a  success ;  but  the  community  contin- 
ues insensible  to  its  own  obligation  and  unconscious 
of  its  opportunities.  Because  no  provision  is  made 
to  utilize  the  heart  and  mind  interest  of  "  Every- 
man," these  methods  fail  to  provide  for  growing 
needs.  Hence  the  broad  gap  between  a  benevolent 
society's  program  and  its  achievement  that  neces- 
sitates the  formation  of  supplementary  charities. 
Hence  the  duplication  of  agencies  to  care  for  chil- 
dren without  protecting  childhood,  to  alleviate  mis- 
ery without  eradicating  the  causes.  Realizing  these 
limitations,  societies  have  grown  to  use  two  other 
methods,  the  Mailing  List  Appeal  and  the  Press  Ap- 
peal, both  as  yet  familiar  to  American  philanthropy 
only  in  their  crude  form  and  both  requiring  for  their 
development  the  assumption  that  desire  to  help  can 


MAILING  LIST  APPEALS  317 

be  awakened  where  ability  to  help  exists.     See  pages 
142  and  831 

While  there  is  no  magic  in  a  card  index  of  names 
and  addresses,  a  large  mailing  list  is  the  best  known 
means  of  discovering  whether  a  community  will  sup- 
port charitable  work.  To  guarantee  what  is  known 
to  the  advertising  world  as  "  cumulative  effect,"  it 
is  essential  to  know  that  a  large  number  of  possible 
givers  receive  directly  and  repeatedly  our  story  of 
service  rendered  and  funds  required.  This  direct, 
repeated  appeal  is  possible  only  when  a  society  pos- 
sesses and  uses  a  list  of  men  and  women  potentially 


DECLARATION  OF  PURPOSE 

To  Promote  and   Unify  a  World-wide  Interest  ia 

Children's  Gardens 

By  assisting  in  starting  Children's  Gardens  in  suitable  parks  and 
vacant  lots. 

By  assisting  in  starting  Gardens  in  connection  with  schools,  until 
Boards  of  Education  become  convinced  of  their  value  and  take  over 
their  maintenance. 

By  assisting  in  starting  Gardens  in  connection  with  hospitals  and 
institutions,  for  children  who  are  mentally  or  physically  weak  or  deficient. 

By  urging  the  employment  of  teachers  trained  for  Children's 
Garden  work. 

By  establishing  a  Training  School  for  such  teachers. 

By  exhibiting  models  and  pictures  of  the  work,  for  the  information 
of  the  public. 

By  maintaining  a  bureau  of  information  and  advice  on  how  to 
start  and  conduct  Children's  Gardens ;  fumish  lectures,  printed  matter, 
photographs  and  lantern  slides. 

WILL  YOU  JOIN  US? 


interested  and  presumably  able  to  support  the  work 
by  reguar  donations.  In  small  communities  every 
man's  standing  is  known  to  some  one  connected  with 
each  charity.  In  cities  the  following  are  always  sig- 
nificant of  ability  to  give:  business,  social  and 
family  connection ;  rent  paid  and  general  standard 
of  living, —  this  last  being  made  known  in  a  general 


318  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

way  through  social  registers,  business,  telephone 
and  club  directories,  press  notices  of  recreation, 
journeys,  weddings,  personals,  legacies,  etc.  It  is 
quite  true  that  this  would  also  be  the  best  way  to 
select  men  and  women  living  up  to  or  even  beyond 
their  incomes,  which  fact,  however,  in  no  way  dimin- 
ishes the  effectiveness  of  the  mailing  list  as  the  basis 
of  presumptive  ability  to  give.  Many  a  man  re- 
puted to  pay  business  obligations  tardily  will  give 
freely  of  time  and  money  to  charities.  Many  women 
do  not  hold  their  capital  in  such  reverence  as  to  deny 
themselves  the  pleasure  of  relieving  misery  or  be- 
stowing happiness. 

But,  as  many  societies  have  proved,  a  large  mail- 
ing list  is  a  veritable  "  house  of  trouble  "  unless  re- 
vised to  date.  Charitable  impulses  are  chilled  by 
appeals  misdirected,  or  addressed  to  one's  deceased 
wife  or  to  Miss  B.  years  after  she  has  become  Mrs. 
A.  To  avoid  such  mistakes, —  to  prevent  the  ac- 
cumulation of  dead  wood, —  large  charities  employ 
a  clerk  who  notes  deaths  and  removals,  changes  of 
address,  business  reverses  and  personal  misfortune 
for  contributors,  and  so  far  as  practical  for  non- 
contributors  on  the  mailing  list.  Mistakes  enough 
occur  when  every  precaution  is  taken,  but  if  one 
has  done  his  utmost  it  is  easier  to  apologize  to  a 
contributor  who  writes  "  Fortunately  I  am  not  de- 
ceased as  announced  in  your  report,  and,  Providence 
permitting,  will  send  my  usual  donation  next  month." 
Finally  it  has  been  found  true  that  wherever 
appeals    are    sent    out    to   hoped-for    contributors, 


NEWSPAPER  APPEALS  319 

a  carefully  selected  and  revised  list,  however  small, 
addressed  year  after  year,  is  more  productive  than 
random  lists  chosen  for  each  single  appeal. 

The  same  principle  applies  to  the  use  of  the  press, 
a  fact  hitherto  slighted  by  American  charities. 
The  single  appeal  in  a  newspaper  that  is  most  help- 
ful to  one  charity  would  mean  little  to  another,  the 
need  for  which  is  independent  of  weather,  imminent 
death,  or  other  special  conditions.  If  published 
the  morning  that  the  direct  appeals  arrive  in  the 
mail  the  press  appeal  indirectly  helps.  But  except 
to  support  a  direct  appeal  it  generally  helps  less 
than  an  interesting  news  item.  A  newspaper's 
fresh  air  or  Christmas  fund  may  secure  $5,000  from 
new  contributors  each  year,  but  only  after  adver- 
tising space  worth  $20,000  or  more  has  been  de- 
voted to  it.  Even  after  a  startling  calamity  like 
the  Slocum  disaster,  the  returns  from  the  first  ap- 
peal, accompanied  by  details  of  suffering  and  hor- 
ror, were  less  than  from  the  fifth  appeal  standing 
alone.  A  religious  weekly  raised  $1,000  to  send 
crippled  children  to  Sea  Breeze,  but  the  first  two 
appeals  brought  less  than  $50. 

It  is  too  much  to  expect  editors,  generous  as  they 
are,  to  print  for  other  than  their  own  work  appeals 
for  the  same  cause  in  three  or  five  successive  issues. 
In  other  words,  except  in  case  of  the  few  charities 
that  happen  to  enjoy  special  privileges  or  to  be  en- 
gaged in  newsmaking  work,  the  one  thing  necessary 
to  the  most  effective  use  of  the  press  is  denied  unless 
space  be  bought. 


320 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


The  first  result  of  a  decision  to  resort  to  press 
and  mailing  list  appeals  is  stage  fright.  One  can- 
not exactly  ask  a  perfect  stranger  to  help  one  out 
as  a  personal  favor,  nor  can  one  modestly  be  charm- 
ing by  the  agate  line  or  the  page.  Even  glorifica- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Managers  and  the  Ladies'  Aux- 


Know 


How  Much  Do  You  S? 

about  the 

K  CHARTER? 


Enough  to  accept  tho  *Cayor*a  In- 
vitation—fn  a  tetter  advertised  U* 
yesterday  a  papers— Jo  put  your  fin- 
ger on  "the  sections'  or'  provisions 
which  arfc  n»».  jlshfc  "?  .  \ 

Dfc>  you  and i your  neighbors  warife' 
to  know;   .  j 

What  provisions  In  the.  proposed 
charter  are  a  menace'  to  efficient 
and  honest  government?  .    ; 

What    statements— and    they    are 
many— In   tha   Mayor's  letter  ar«-  *. 
Incorrect?'  %  -  ^ 

Toil  and  yau*  neighbors. can.  htfp'  , 

Keep  the  Charter  Dead 

py  getting*  and.  telling  4ha  facter 
by  helping  pay  for  some  one  Xof 
worlt   for  you  every  day   in  -tha  " 
year  through 

Bureau  of  Municipal  Research 

201  iBroadway 

——«—»» i  in     i  ,  \tP 


iliary  seems  a  trifle  out  of  place.  The  appeal  must 
contain  matter  which  in  cold  type  will  interest  Ev- 
eryman, for  if  the  story  is  dull  no  one  will  read  it 
nor  if  it  is  the  same  as  last  year's  story,  nor  if  it 
brags  or  lectures  or  weeps  too  obviously.     You  see 


PUBLICITY  BRINGS  SINCERITY     321 

it  is  necessary  to  think  hard  about  this  appeal. 
Having  eliminated  the  personality  of  the  writer  the 
two  chief  factors  concerned  are  given  added  impor- 
tance; that  is,  the  work  itself  and  the  personality 
of  the  hoped-for  contributor.  Failure  to  under- 
stand more  thoroughly  these  two  factors  accounts 
for  the  dangerously  small  number  of  active  partici- 
pants in  charitable  and  civic  movements  and  for  the 
anaemic  character  of  so  many  of  these  movements. 

Just  as  soon  as  an  appeal  invites  public  scrutiny 
and  criticism  —  as  every  public  appeal  does  —  both 
manager  and  worker  experience  the  sensation  that 
is  said  to  result  from  the  Swiss  Referendum.  It 
may  seem  to  pay  one  year  to  add  two  or  three  ci- 
phers to  the  number  receiving  Christmas  dinners, 
but  experience  has  proved  repeatedly  that  mislead- 
ing, exaggerating,  braggadocio  appeals  cannot  suc- 
ceed year  after  year.  The  truth  will  out  —  the 
more  of  its  aspects  that  are  known  to  the  author  of 
appeals  and  faithfully  described  the  more  generous 
will  be  the  responses.  For  this  reason  the  public 
appeal  ushers  in  a  new  era  of  sincerity,  accuracy 
and  definiteness  on  the  part  of  workers  and  a  new 
era  of  intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  community 
whose  support  is  solicited. 


Clearing   Standards  of  Appeal 

Cooperative  efforts  to  improve  appeals  have  al- 
ready been  made  by  charity  organization  societies. 
Thus  far  such  cooperation  has  been  confined  to  the 
exchange  of  appeals  after,  not  before,  they  are  sent 
and  affects  but  a  small  number  of  relief  agencies. 
Cooperative  effort  among  non-competing  institu- 
tions in  different  environments  is  quite  different 
from  cooperation  between  competing  agencies  in  the 
same  environment.  A  second  rate  method  of  ap- 
pealing to  New  Yorkers  might  help  New  York  agen- 
cies more  than  the  most  successful  effort  of  appeal- 
ing to  Californians.  Therefore  instruction  in  ap- 
pealing should  include  exchange  of  technique  found 
most  successful  by  cooperating  and  competing  agen- 
cies within  each  area,  plus  the  circulation  of  meth- 
ods, criticisms  and  suggestions  from  some  national 
center. 

It  is  probable  that  a  service  would  be  self  sup- 
porting which,  for  a  fee,  would  give  advice  to  agen- 
cies wishing  to  have  their  appeals  and  reports  con- 
structively criticised.  It  frequently  happens,  for 
example,  that  school  superintendents  send  the  Bu- 
reau of  Municipal  Research  reports  for  criticism 
just  as  men  and  women  go  to  a  dentist  for  examina- 
tion or  as  business  houses  engage  a  "  business  doc- 
tor." 


CLEARING  STANDARDS  OF  APPEAL     323 

Efficiency  in  appealing  can  best  be  promoted  by 
aiming  to  make  this  clearing  house  of  appeals  a 
post-graduate  school  for  establishing  proper  stand- 
ards of  appeal  among  those  to  whom  appeals  are 
addressed,  i.e.,  prospective  givers.  When  receivers 
of  appeals  refuse  to  read  the  obviously  over  stated, 
obviously  insincere,  obviously  incomplete,  obviously 
inconsistent  or  otherwise  obviously  inefficient  appeal, 
those  who  ask  will  improve  their  methods.  When 
givers  refuse  to  listen  unless  a  case  is  clearly  made 
out,  appealers  will  make  out  their  case.  This  does 
not  imply  a  white  list  or  a  black  list  of  agencies, 
but  merely  the  simple,  progressive  instruction  of  all 
concerned,  particularly  the  hoped-for  donor,  in  how 
to  refuse  appeals  to  the  heart  which  do  not  at  the 
same  time  appeal  to  the  mind. 

Seven  points  of  departure  are  essential  in  stand- 
ardizing appeals:  (1)  appeals  have  an  educa- 
tional, sometimes  miseducational,  value;  (2)  details 
of  technique  either  strengthen  or  weaken  an  ap- 
peal (see  page  129)  ;  (3)  demanding  or  proffering 
evidence  is  symptomatic  of  "  short  cuts  "  as  well  as 
of  "  red  tape";  (4)  appeals  should  be  addressed  to 
100%  of  each  man  and  100%  of  a  community;  (5) 
appeals  should  show  100%  of  the  need  for  which  an 
agency  appeals ;  (6)  responsibility  should  be  lodged 
upon  the  group,  section,  locality  or  agency  where  it 
belongs;  (7)  appeals  should  show  what,  if  any,  re- 
lation the  work  appealed  for  bears  to  government. 
These   seven   points   merit   separate   treatment. 


324  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

The  Educational  Value  of  Appeals 

To  a  degree  that  they  themselves  seldom  realize, 
recipients  of  "  begging  letters "  are  educated  by 
these  letters.  To  a  degree,  also,  that  writers  sel- 
dom realize,  recipients  are  miseducated  by  appeals 
for  good  causes.  Many  of  the  best  paying  appeals 
are  miseducational. 

The  justification  of  the  reiterated  appeal  is  not 
that  it  brings  gifts,  for  it  does,  but  that  it  influ- 
ences givers.  It  is  no  novel  experience  for  charita- 
ble agencies  to  receive  bequests  for  which  they  can 
account  in  no  way  except,  perhaps,  that  the  donor 
or  his  lawyer  or  a  chance  adviser  has  been  on  the 
mailing  list  for  several  years. 

That  appeal  is  most  successful  which  conveys  im- 
portant information  to  the  reader  whether  it  brings 
back  money  or  not.  Appeals  have  done  more  to 
teach  this  country  sociology  than  have  all  its  uni- 
versities. Appeals  will  do  more  this  next  genera- 
tion to  teach  standards  of  efficient  government  than 
will  colleges.  When  Mr.  Rockefeller  said  that 
every  good  cause  should  continually  appeal,  he  must 
have  meant  that  no  good  cause  was  entitled  to  mo- 
nopolize its  information  with  regard  to  needs  not 
met   and   opportunities    to   help.     On   this    ground, 

"Somebody's  Boy" 

Will  you  not,  when  you  sit  down  comfortably  at 
your  well-filled  table  at  home,  give  a  thought  to 
those  poor  fellows?  Remember  that  in  many  cases 
the  misfortune  that  has  befallen  them  is  no  fault 
of  theirs.  They  did  not  know  when  they  left  the 
old  homestead,  full  of  hope  and  energy,  that  there 
were  thousands  of  workless  men  in  New  York.  So 
they  just  slipped  down  step  by  step  until  they  came 
perilously  near  eoine  over  the  brink/ 


APPEALS  SHOULD  EDUCATE        8*5 

too,  is  it  that  Mr.  John  Seely  Ward  of  New  York 
City  justifies  the  spending  of  an  impoverished  socie- 
ty's last  dollar  on  appealing  —  convinced  that  when 
people  know  the  truth  no  need  will  be  ignored.  The 
time  will  come  when  every  efficient  agency  will 
classify  its  appeals  as  "  educational  investment " 
rather  than  as  "  money  making  investment,"  and 
when  society  will  test  appeals  by  the  conviction  and 
information   they   carry   and   not  by   their  financial 

FACTS  ABOVT  THF 

Young  Women's  cnnstian  flssoclatloQ 

of 

Springfield,  Missouri 


985  member*. 

119  enrolled  in  gymnaiium  cliuei. 
40  enrolled  in  Educational  claiaei. 
1,600  total  yearly  attendance  at  tocial  gathering*. 
117  rrgUterrd  In  Bible  claue*. 
1S7  reached  each  week  through  meeting*   held 

in  industrial  centert. 
335  Women  and  girla   auiited   by   Traveler!- 
Aid  in  two  month*. 

73  different  girl*   in   Dormitory   during   latt 

year. 
67  (ranaienr*  in  Dormitory  during  hut  year. 
23.828  total  attendance  in   Cafeteria  during   tan 

year. 

Dormitory  and  Cafeteria  aelf  rupporting. 
Induttrial,  Religiout  and  *ocial  department*  have 


Travelera-Aid  lupported  by   Federated    Brother- 
hood. 

return.  Those  who  do  not  answer  appeals  will  al- 
ways exceed  those  who  do.  To  this  larger  audience 
every  appeal  should  be  so  worded  as  to  affect  its  at- 
titude toward  those  general  problems  of  which  any 
one  appeal  will  deal  with  only  a  small  fraction. 


326  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

When  appeals  aim  to  educate  as  well  as  to  move, 
the  generation  which  is  passing  will  give  its  money 
for  the  present  and  the  future  rather  than  for  sub- 
sidizing a  picture  of  its  past  that  has  been  kept 
alive  several  years  by  emotional,  uninforming  ap- 
peals. It  is  for  want  of  up-to-date  information  and 
of  the  reiteration  of  up-to-date  facts  that  rich  men 
and  women  withhold  gifts  from  causes  in  which  they 
are  profoundly  interested  and  base  their  refusals 
upon  personal  or  other  trifling  inhibitions  that  date 
back  ten  or  fifty  years.  Nothing  but  educational 
appeals  will  prevent  the  progressive  diversion  of 
funds,  by  the  accident  of  personal  like  or  dislike, 
from  causes  that  need  help  to  other  causes  that  do 
not  need  help. 

Still  greater  than  the  educational  value  of  each 
appeal  is  the  combined  educational  value  of  truths 
told  in  all  appeals  which  the  proposed  clearing 
house  will  classify.  Using  these  truths  men  and 
women  will  not  give  money  really  to  themselves  — 
to  memories  that  they  cherish  —  for  reasons  en- 
tirely apart  from  the  work  upon  which  their  money 
will  be  spent.  It  is  for  want  of  educational  appeals 
that  rich  men  who  have  given  money  for  chairs  in 
sociology  and  politics  have  at  the  same  time  thrown 
into  their  waste  baskets  sociological  data  worth 
more  for  teaching  purposes,  and  as  foundations  for 
the  science  of  sociology,  than  are  years  of  so-called 
sociological  research. 

Are  we  urging  a  council  of  perfection? 


I  renture  to  write  to  you  about  Lillian  T.-  In 
the  bop*  that  wha».  haa  b«tn  dona  for  har  cay  anllst  /our 
sympathy  and  aid  for  other*  appealing  to  u*  vbote  neede 
are  Just  a*  urgent  and  keen. 

lorry  over  her  elek  Bother  and  ovsrwork  ae  cashier 
In  a  raataurant  brought  Lillian  to  the  verge  of  nervoua 
proetratlon.  The  hot  eeather  aggravated  her  condition  and 
ahe  waa  compelled  to  atop  work.  Two  waeks  epent  at  See 
Breexe  Hone  haa  aada  her  happy  and  healthy  again.  She  la 
no*  anxious  to  return  to  work  and  help  to  support  th*  no** 
of  bar  widowed  Bother. 

a  eevere  winter  of  hardships  and  drudgery  has  under- 
■lnad  the  health  and  eggravated  the  distress  of  hundreds  of 
faallles.  A  stumer  epent  in  the  ecorchlng  streets  and  the 
atlf  ling  elossnese  of  the  family  rooms  will  increase  their  future 
hardships  and  present  alaery  by  sickness  and  hopelessness. 

These  dweller*  of  attic,  baseaent  and  rear  tenements  a 
the  aged,  the  overworked,  the  anaemia  •  sorely  need  your  aid. 
fill  you  not  help  us  to  send  on*  or  aore  of  thea  to  the 
country  or  sea:boro  as  your  gusataf  The  cost  is  so  assail  In 
eoaparlson  with  the  benefits  to  thea  ana  the  pleasure  for  you. 

J  havo  tried  to  appeal  to  your  judgment  and  your 
heart.   If  I  havo  failed  the  fault  la  alne,  for  the  needa 
of  those  In  whose  behalf  I  ask  your  help  are  genuine  and  de- 
serve a  aore  urgent  appeal  thin  I  can  aaks. 


\'srj   truly  yours, 


slgn*turr) 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  APPEALING  ILLUSTRATED 


Standardizing  Details  of  Appealing  Technique 

There  is  no  more  excuse  for  using  an  appealing 
technique  50  years  old  than  for  wearing  colonial 
styles  of  dress,  for  speaking  an  obsolete  language, 
or  for  preferring  horse  cars  to  electricity.  De- 
fective technique  does  not  conduce  to  a  free  ex- 
pression of  individuality, —  character,  personality, 
unique  distinctions, —  in  appealing  any  more  than 
in  architecture,  salesmanship,  music  or  drama.  As 
every  man  is  heir  to  all  the  world's  experience  and 
knowledge,  so  every  man  is  under  obligation  in  ap- 
pealing, as  in  thinking,  to  use  the  best  technique 
which  experience  has  evolved. 

Defects  of  appealing  are  expressions  of  provin- 
cialism, not  personality;  of  isolation,  not  character. 
In  reviewing  the  literature  pertaining  to  philan- 
thropy, education  and  religious  activities,  including 
the  minutes  of  national  and  state  conferences,  one  is 
surprised  that  so  little  attention  has  been  given  to 
the  principles  and  methods  of  increasing  the  number 
interested  in  social  service.  The  greatest  single 
reason  is  that  the  subject  is  too  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  raising  of  funds.  An  executive,  may 
discuss  with  his  fellow  executive  how  to  relieve  needy 
widows,  how  to  rescue  foundlings,  reform  drunkards 
or    protect    dogs.     But   if   conscious    of   possessing 

327 


328  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

an  effective  means  of  interesting  his  community, 
particularly  persons  of  means,  in  his  special  branch 
of  educational  or  philanthropic  endeavor,  his  fellow- 
worker  and  competitor  is  the  last  with  whom  he 
wishes  to  discuss  such  advantage. 

This  reluctance  to  exchange  experience  in  appeal- 
ing is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  we  have  al- 
ready reached  the  maximum  of  funds  available  for 
eleemosynary  purposes,  and  that  in  consequence 
every  advance  made  by  one  organization  must  be  at 
the  expense  of  some  other  organization.  Obvious 
it  is,  then,  that  to  help  my  neighbor  increase  the 
number  of  his  supporters  is  to  jeopardize  my  own 
financial  standing.  Whatever,  therefore,  may  be 
the  available  experience  which  we  travel  across  a 
continent  yearly  to  obtain  at  conventions, —  so  far 
as  it  relates  to  the  motherless  infant,  the  cripple, 
the  vagrant,  the  insane,  the  idiot,  the  convalescent 
wage  earner,  industrial  training,  probation,  college 
entrance  examinations, —  we  withhold  our  confidence 
from  that  point  where  our  experience  begins  to  re- 
late to  the  men  and  women  who  make  our  work  pos- 
sible. We  may  imitate  our  neighbor;  we  seldom 
ask  his  help  or  try  to  help  him. 

Just  as  there  is  no  competition  between  the 
woman  earning  $20  a  week  and  the  woman  earning 
$5,  so  there  is  no  competition  between  inefficient  and 
efficient  methods  of  appealing.  The  more  agencies 
who  write  efficient  appeals  the  greater  will  be  the 
competition,    the    more    rapid    the    progress,    ai.d 


SEVEN  INGREDIENTS  OF  TRUTH     329 

the    greater    their    combined    educational    influence. 

A  central  clearing  house,  by  using  questions  and 
publicity  that  cannot  possibly  offend  any  agency, 
could,  in  a  short  time,  universalize  a  habit  of  mind 
among  appealers  and  givers  that  would  absolutely 
discontinue  many  kinds  of  appealing  and  many  ac- 
tivities and  would  teach  those  appealers  who  survive 
(1)  to  discard  traditional  fallacies  with  reference 
to  springs  of  benevolence ;  (2)  to  analyze  and  clas- 
sify fact  by  fact  the  moral  and  financial  resources 
of  the  communities  for  which  they  labor;  (3)  to 
study  methods  of  appealing  to  those  resources ;  (4) 
to  use  efficient  methods  of  appealing  to  those  re- 
sources. 

Appealers  and  givers  may  be  interested  in  seven 
ingredients  of  an  effective  statement  of  any   case: 

(1)  desire  to  know  (the  Carnegie  Foundation  de- 
sires   to    know    300    facts    about    colleges,    headed 

Application  of   Institution  for  Admission  to  the   Retiring 
Allowance  System   of  the  Carnegie  Foundation 

The  data  called  for  in  this  application  should  be  taken  or 
calculated  from  the  records  of  the  institution;  please  do  not 
give  approximate  estimates)  ; 

(2)  unit  of  inquiry  (aged  persons  not  age;  infants 
not  infancy ;  students  not  education ;  cases  of  tuber- 
culosis not  white  plague,  etc);  (3)  count;  (4)  com- 
parison (this  year  with  last,  this  month  with  last, 
expenses  with  persons  helped)  ;  (5)  subtraction  to 
show     the     differences     between     things     compared, 


330  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

translated  into  percentages  so  that  appealer  and 
reader  will  use  a  common  language;  (6)  classifica- 
tion, to  keep  things  of  a  kind  together;  (7)  sum- 
mary, to  tell  the  story  in  a  nut  shell. 

The  more  clearly  defined  these  seven  steps  the 
easier  it  will  be  to  express  the  appealer's  personality 
and  any  unique  feature  of  his  cause. 

The  One  Page  Fetish 

After  a  man  has  made  several  millions  or  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  by  infinite  attention  to  detail  and 
by  attention  to  infinite  detail,  he  begins  to  want  to 
get  out  of  the  detail  class  into  the  impression  class. 
He  comes  by  gradual  stages  to  draw  the  line  at  a 
four  page  letter,  then  a  three  page  letter  and  so  on 
to  one  page, —  never  more  than  one  page,  prefer- 
ably that  page  triple  or  double,  fashionably  spaced, 
with  conspicuous  waste  of  margins  at  sides,  top  and 
bottom. 

For  years,  instead  of  challenging  this  fetish  and 
calling  it  by  its  right  name,  social  workers  and  men 
with  live  programs  have  been  trying  to  condense 
their  statements  into  this  one  page.  It  cannot  be 
done.  In  the  long  run  we  shall  get  a  better  result 
by  buying  advertising  space,  if  need  be,  in  the  news- 
papers to  tell  the  truth  about  the  one  page  mind. 
It  tends  to  become  a  closed  mind  that  cannot  under- 
stand its  own  environment.  It  tends  to  be  a  mind 
that  gets  only  a  panoramic  view  even  of  its  own 
past,  and  that  is  apt  to  become  a  menace  to  prog- 


ONE  PAGE  FETISH  331 

ress  in  direct  proportion  to  the  power  of  that  mind 
over  other  minds  and  over  other  pocket  books. 

When  secretaries  and  those  who  furnish  supple- 
mentary mind  and  eye  to  rich  men  and  women  be- 
gin to  value  proposals  by  their  brevity  instead  of 
by  their  content,  it  would  be  a  safe  rule  to  give 
such  delegates  a  new  job.  The  road  of  deteriora- 
tion is  short  from  one  page  —  to  one  sentence  — 
to  one  look  —  to  no  look  —  to  snap  judgment, 
prejudice,  favoritism,  stagnation.  I  have  been 
asked  by  principals,  as  well  as  by  secretaries,  my 
judgment  of  a  novel  plan  from  one  to  two  years 
after3  submitting  that  same  plan  carefully  worked 
out  and  adequately  supported  with  facts.  To  one 
I  wrote :  a  I  find  that  the  very  second  line  of  the 
plan  submitted  to  you  and  published  in  the  news- 
papers a  year  ago  or  more  calls  for  the  interest- 
ing item  that  is  now  figuring  prominently  in  the 
newspapers  and  that  you  rebuked  me  this  morning 
for  having  omitted." 

A  one  page  proposition  that  tells  an  untruth  or 
fails  to  tell  the  truth  is  more  wasteful  than  a 
four  page  proposition  in  which  every  line  is 
weighted  with  its  own  essential  truth.  The  same 
rich  man  who  refuses  to  take  in  an  idea  that  cannot 
be  condensed  on  one  page  is  apt  to  protest  against 
the  superficial  character  of  modern  education  which 
does  not  compel  a  sophomore  in  college  to  spend 
more  than  ten  hours  in  acquiring  one  idea. 

Given    a   clearing-house-university    for   appealers 


332  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

and  givers,  a  helpful  procedure  would  be  not  to  set 
an  arbitrary  limit  to  the  words  that  may  be  used, 
but  to  draw  a  dead  line  on  both  unnecessary  words 
and  on  unintelligible  statements,  regardless  of 
length. 

Men  do  not  demand  prospectuses  for  gold  mines 
or  railroads  or  underwriting  syndicates  that  are 
condensed  into  one  page  with  double  spacing,  waste- 
ful margins  and  unsupported,  untestable  promises 
of  dividends.  Not  even  an  alchemist  can  put  on  a 
page  the  facts  necessary  to  a  sincere  presentation 
and  intelligent  judgment  of  any  one  of  the  20  most 
important  present  day  activities. 

The  one  page  fetish  is  little  less  than  a  bribe  to 
misrepresentation,  unprogressiveness  and  mendi- 
cancy. 

Newspaper  Advertising  of  Good  Causes 

One  day  a  man  came  into  my  office  and  said  he 
would  like  to  talk  to  the  man  who  was  responsible 
for  some  paid  appeals  for  winter  relief  funds  that 
were  then  being  printed  in  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines. After  some  sparring  he  told  me  the  follow- 
ing: He  was  secretary  to  a  man  who  gave  away 
considerable  sums  of  money.  His  principal  had 
been  down  town  a  day  or  two  before  in  an  automo- 
bile and  had  been  so  delayed  by  a  jam  of  east  side 
children  that  he  had  to  give  up  his  drive.  He  was 
provoked  at  things  in  general  and  particularly  at 
east  side  children.     On  his  desk  at  home  he  found  a 


PAID  NEWSPAPER  APPEALS         333 

half  page  advertisement  requesting  aid  for  children 
in  congested  districts.  Coming  so  soon  after  his 
vexation,  it  made  a  deep  impression.  He  kept 
thinking  about  it,  and  the  advertisement  got  all 
mixed  up  in  his  mind  with  the  children  until  he  be- 
came very  mad  with  the  advertisement.  He  kept 
asking  himself,  "  What  right  has  private  philan- 
thropy to  spend  other  people's  money  advertising?  " 
until  finally  he  said  to  himself,  "Well,  that  is  the 
way  I  made  my  money.  Perhaps,  after  all,  the 
charitable  agency  that  raises  its  money  in  a  busi- 
nesslike1 way  will  spend  it  in  a  businesslike  way." 
The  secretary  had  come  to  learn  how  we  happened 
to  advertise,  if  it  paid  and  how  the  gifts  were  used. 

Apart  from  bringing  $5,000  this  visit  raised 
again  several  questions  as  to  the  ethics  and  profit 
of  advertising  private  benevolence. 

It  had  taken  a  conservative  board  some  time  to 
see  that  appealing  letters  were  per  se  no  more  jus- 
tifiable than  paid  cards  in  newspapers.  After  one 
of  the  most  conservative  members  called  attention 
to  the  large  number  of  paid  cards  of  charitable 
agencies  printed  daily  in  the  London  Times,  it  was 
decided  that  a  conservative  charitable  agency  might 
properly  advertise.  It  was  first  proposed  that  we 
draft  a  card  like  those  in  the  London  Times  which 
would  state  in  a  dignified  way  the  nature  of  our 
business.  I  objected  on  two  grounds, —  that  in 
Amfcrica,  at  least,  the  stereotyped  card  always  read- 
ing the  same  way  would  reach  too  few  people  be- 


334 


MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 


cause  readers  try  to  avoid  such  cards,  and,  sec- 
ondly, because  it  seemed  true  of  charitable  adver- 
tising as  of  charitable  work,  that  its  principal  jus- 
tification is  in  its  educational  work.  So  when  it 
was  proposed  that  a  censorship  committee  be  ap- 
pointed and  that  a  number  of  advertisements  be 
prepared  and  censored  in  advance,  I  asked  to  be 
excused  on  the  ground  that  the  only  advertising  I 

ADVERTISEMENT. 


Is  There  Any  Hope  of 
Good  Government 

if  it  is  not  made  efficient  ever/  dly 
in  the  vear?  There  is  Viiore  waste- 
graft  and  blunder-graft  than  th*(r- 
gfaft  or. cheat-graft. 

Are  You  Doing  Your 
Share 

to* cooperate  every  dlv  in  the  year 
with  those  city  officials  wh»>'wantto 
make  Jionesty  easier  than  dishonesty, 
competence  easier  than  incompetence?  • 

Interest  once  in  four  years  is  not 
enoughs  Not  scolding,  not  revenge, 
not  enthusiasm,  but  information  is  "• 
needed— accurate  information  foe 
-everybody  about  tho  "Work  of  cily  de- 
partments. 

To.  Help 

Every  Day  in  theYear 

send"  your  share  of  $10<i,0Q0./or  te- 
quest    for    further    information^     to'  ' 
Bureau   of   Municipal . 'Research,   201.. 
Broadway.-       Privately       supported;": 
spends   $100,000  a   yaar   through   en- 
gineers,    accountants,     health/  and  • 
school  investigators,  etc.,  -to  promote^ 
efficient  /government. 

Bureau. of  Municipal  Re$earch 

26i   BROADWAY 

inn  in  mi  ' *  ii      ■!■■  * 


PAID  NEWSPAPER  APPEALS         :W5 

frit  justified  in  being  party  to  was  the  advertised 
vital  message.  Unless  we  were  willing  to  spend  our 
money  on  advertising  for  the  good  the  advertising 
would  do  without  any  reference  whatever  to  the 
amount  of  money  it  would  return,  I  thought  we 
ought  to  raise  money  some  other  way.  The  result 
was  an  experiment  in  paid  advertising  of  good 
causes  which  reached  a  dramatic  height  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1906  when  fully  6,000,000  pages  of  maga- 
zine advertising  carried  "  Little  Joe's  Smile  "  with 
its  successful  appeal  for  outside  sea  air  treatment 
for  bone  tuberculosis. 

In  its  report  for  1910  the  New  York  Association 
for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  gives  a 
chapter  to  its  experience  in  appealing  through  paid 
advertisements  and  shows  that  in  return  for  $1,500 
thus  spent  it  received  about  $11,500.  Those  fa- 
miliar with  the  cost  of  appealing  will  recognize  in 
this  an  extraordinary  return. 

If  it  is  worth  while  for  benevolent  agencies  to 
spend  money  to  prepare  occasional  articles  for 
newspapers  in  support  of  their  appeal  for  funds, 
it  is  worth  while  to  spend  the  money  to  tell  their 
story  over  and  over  again  so  that  it  will  be  just  as 
easy  for  people  to  know  where  to  get  relief  or  where 
to  give  relief  as  it  is  to  know  where  to  buy  bonds 
or  bargain  furniture. 

It  is  the  quack's  reiteration,  not  the  quack's  lie, 

AGGRESSIVE  EVANGELISM  EVERY  DAY  IN  THE  YEAR 


336  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

that  succeeds.  Many  charitable  enterprises  are 
now  testing  the  truth  of  this  statement  by  paid  ad- 
vertising in  street  cars  and  on  billboards  side  by 
side  with  headache  cures,  etc.  The  following  ap- 
peared in  the  New  York  World: 

WANTED — College  students  to  serve  as  volunteer,  (non^- 
salaried)  leaders  of  boys'  social  clubs  at  the  Educational  Al- 
liance, East  Broadway  and  Jefferson  Street,  New  York  City; 
please  communicate  with  Educational  Directors. 
WANTED — A  physical  training  teacher  and  playground 
worker;  must  be  single  man,  thoroughly  competent. 

Agencies  that  want  money  more  than  educational 
results  will  probably  find  circular  letters  mailed 
again  and  again  to  the  same  list  more  productive 
than  paid  advertising.  Agencies  with  very  limited 
programs  will  find  it  rather  embarrassing  to  ask 
the  attention  of  all  newspaper  readers  to  such  limi- 
tations. 

But  any  benevolent  cause  which  depends  for  its 
success  upon  public,  understanding  and  public  co- 
operation will  find  paid  advertisements  to  news- 
paper and  magazine  audiences  profitable  invest- 
ments. Take,  for  example,  the  baby  saving  cam- 
paign in  New  York  City.  Last  year  about  10,000 
babies  were  cared  for  in  the  milk  stations.  Possi- 
bly 10,000  more  were  visited  in  their  homes  and 
their  mothers  given  enough  instruction  to  warrant 
the  claim  that  they  were  benefited  from  such  in- 
struction. Thus  of  150,000  young  babies  alive  dur- 
ing the  summer  only  20,000  were  directly  reached 
through   public    and   private    agencies.     The    other 


NEWSPAPER  APPEALS  EDUCATE 

l:>0,000  were  treated  through  parents,  without 
help,  or  by  private  physicians.  The  health  depart- 
ment and  private  agencies  had  no  means  except  the 
newspapers  of  affecting  the  character  of  private 
service  given  by  private  physicians  and  parents  to 
the  130,000  who  were  not  reached  by  milk  stations 
and  house  to  house  visits. 

Yet  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  for  every 
baby  who  was  brought  through  the  summer  because 
of  the  direct  intervention  of  the  health  department 
or  milk  station  nurse  or  physician,  at  least  one 
other  baby  owes  its  survival  indirectly  to  the  same 
educational  work.  Thus  "  over  the  shoulder "  of 
the  poor  baby  can  we  help  the  well-to-do  and  the 
not-quite-so-poor. 

This  indirect  educational  work  for  which  the  poor 
baby  serves  as  a  fulcrum  is  more  important  than 
saving  the  babies  of  the  poor,  because  it  instructs 
those  who  surround  and  who,  in  turn,  instruct  both 
rich  and  poor. 

Any  and  all  advertising  of  benevolent  work  that 
does  not  carry  with  it  an  educational  message  for 
those  not  included  in  its  direct  service,  will  misedu- 
cate  the  public,  will  do  more  harm  than  good  and 
may  be  justifiably  prohibited  by  society. 

For  example,  in  the  hot  weeks  of  August,  1911, 
long  advertisements  surrounded  by  reading  matter 
invited  the  attention  of  readers  to  the  suffering  in 
New  York  tenement  homes  and  to  the  opportunity 
to  carry  thousands  of  mothers  and  children  to  sea- 


338  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

shore  and  country.  There  was  a  distinct  implica- 
tion that  what  happened  to  these  mothers  and  chil- 
dren when  taken  to  the  seashore  would  save  life  and 
protect  them  against  the  summer  heat.  As  printed, 
there  was  hardly  an  advertisement  that  did  not  give 
a  wrong  conception  of  fresh  air  work  and  of  city 
conditions.  Without  an  increase  of  one  dollar  in 
the  expense,  and  while  still  increasing  their  effi- 
ciency, it  would  have  been  possible  to  make  each  of 
these  notices  truly  educational. 

That  advertising  relief  encourages  pauperism 
was  maintained  at  the  Philadelphia  conference  of 
charities  and  corrections  in  1905  by  the  old  guard 
of  orthodox  charity  workers.  In  reply  it  was  urged 
that  the  rich  and  the  charitable  agency  had  no 
moral  right  to  shift  to  the  poor  its  responsibility  for 
wise  distribution  of  relief;  that  the  coming  of  more 
applicants  need  not  of  itself  incur  an  additional 
dollar's  expense  for  relief  or  encourage  pauperism 
if  the  society  gives  only  what  relief  is  needed;  and 
that  if  relief  is  needed  knowledge  of  where  it  can 
be  obtained  should  be  as  free  as  knowledge  of  the 
three  Rs. 

A  WIDOWED  MOTHER'S  RENT. 

Two  years  ago  a  widow  with  a  boy  of  12 
and  a  girl  two  years  younger  was  thrown 
on  her  own  resources  by  the  death  of  her 
brother  who  had  been  caring  for  her  and 
the  children  during  the  five  years  of  her 
widowhood.  Through  her  own  efforts  and 
some  outside  help  she  has  kept  the  home, 
and  now,  by  working  four  days  a  week  as 
a  cleaner,  she  is  earning  $6.  This,  with 
the  groceries  which  her  church  gives  her 
regularly,  makes  her  income  for  food  and 
fuel  adequate.  The  rent  of  the  home — the 
same  four  rooms  in  which  she  began  house- 
keeping— must  be  provided  for.     The  Charity 


PAID  ADVERTISING  EQUITABLE     339 

Organization  Society  auks  for  $120  to  con- 
tinue to  DMt  this  rental  until  the  boy  can 
get  his  working  papers — about  a  year  hence. 

Gifts  may  be  sent  to  the  office  of  the 
society,  105  East  Twenty-second  Street,  and 
will     be    acknowledged. 

The  society  acknowledges  with  thanks  the 
following  contributions  received  in  response 
to  previous  appeals  In  The  Times: 

Isaac  Denby,  $5;  Mrs.  P.  C.  Whlttelsey, 
$10;  J.  H.  F.,  $10;  Anonymous,  $2;  Dr. 
D.  O.  Elliot,  $10;  Anonymous,  $5;  Mrs. 
Z.  B.  Carter.  $10;  Cash,  $2;  H.  C.  J.,  $1; 
H.  L.  T.,  $2;  J.  L.  M..  $2;  Mrs.  Thomas  R. 
Almond,  $10;  M.,  Jr.,  $50;  Anonymous,  $3; 
A  Business  Woman,  $1;  Mrs.  H.  F.  Clark, 
II;   J.   H.   S.,   $15;   Mrs.   Robert   Stobo,   $3. 

Effective  Education   and  Advertising 

Paid  newspaper  advertising  is  more  equitable  than 
free  newspaper  advertising  that  goes  by  favor 
rather  than  by  importance  of  service.  In  most 
communities  a  very  small  minority  of  charitable  en- 
terprises have  access  to  newspapers  which,  like  in- 
dividuals, tend  to  give  to  those  who  have  rather 
than  to  those  who  need.  An  agency  that  has  been 
in  the  habit  of  receiving  free  space  will  get  it  more 
easily  than  a  new  agency,  regardless  of  the  relative 
usefulness  of  the  two  causes.  For  example,  in 
many  cities  the  associated  charities  has  free  space 
for  its  appeals  for  individual  cases  of  need  and  for 
acknowledgment  of  gifts.  If  we  come  back  to  the 
origin  of  this  practice  we  find  that  newspapers  take 
these  items  partly  because  they  are  news  and  partly 
because  the  associated  charities  is  naturally  sup- 
posed to  be  organizing  the  relief  of  all  other  agen- 
cies in  the  city.  Therefore,  in  printing  its  appeal 
the  newspaper  thinks  it  is  acting  for  all  agencies 
when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  several  thousand  dollars 


340  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

worth  of  free  advertising  is  given  yearly  to  one  of 
a  number  of  agencies  competing  for  public  atten- 
tion and  support. 

Reading  the  free  appeals  and  gifts  by  the  asso- 
ciated charities  or  other  agencies  that  get  free 
space  makes  rival  societies  feel  that  they  too  would 
like  to  get  space  and  money  easily.  They  find 
that  special  stories  in  the  newspapers  bring  money 
from  heretofore  untapped  sources  and  they  then 
consider  systemizing  their  publicity  work. 

Sooner  or  later  every  charitable  enterprise  that 
is  not  endowed  comes  to  value  if  not  to  over-value 
newspaper  publicity.  It  is  thought  to  nourish  the 
interest  of  trustees  and  directors,  to  supplement 
personal  or  circular  appeals  and  to  bring  legacies. 
If  this  last  possibility  has  not  been  sufficiently  un- 
derstood by  agencies,  it  is  because  we  have  not  ap- 
preciated the  extent  to  which  will  makers,  and  the 
lawyers,  physicians  or  friends  who  influence  them, 
owe  their  preference  to  newspaper  discussion. 

Three  principal  methods  of  systematizing  news- 
paper publicity  are:  (1)  to  engage  an  executive 
officer  who  has  been  a  newspaper  man  or  who  has 
shown  capacity  to  get  newspaper  space;  (2)  to  hire 
a  press  agent;  (3)  to  pay  for  space.  None  of 
these  methods  puts  a  stop  to  lobbying  with  news- 
paper managers  and  reporters  or  patronizing  spe- 
cial story  writers  by  social  favors  and  personal 
gifts. 

Quite   a  business   has  been   built  up   recently   by 


PRESS  AGENTS  OPPOSED  341 

press  agents  in  the  pay  of  charitable  enterprises. 
One  institution  sadly  in  need  of  funds  appropriated 
$4,000  for  securing  articles  about  its  work  not  in 
New  York  newspapers  where  they  would  be  read  by 
those  who  would  support  this  work,  but  in  the  news- 
papers of  Texas,  California  and  Maine.  This  on 
the  theory  that  out  of  town  mention  would  attract 
the  notice  of  local  exchange  editors  and  make  them 
feel  that  any  work  which  was  of  such  interest  to 
other  cities  would  justify  publicity  at  home.  Then, 
too,  the  out  of  town  clippings  could  be  used  in  di- 
rect appeals  to  local  givers. 

This  method  I  have  always  opposed  for  the  rea- 
sons indicated  by  the  following  incident:  A  press 
agent  came  to  me  and  wanted  a  retainer  to  do  pub- 
licity for  fresh  air  work,  relief,  hospital  for  tuber- 
culosis, physical  welfare  of  school  children,  etc. 
He  showed  me  57  columns  which  he  had  persuaded 
New  York  newspapers  to  print  regarding  a  certain 
activity  that  at  the  time  was  reaching  50  children. 
When  I  suggested  that  this  was  56  columns  more 
than  the  work  justified  he  replied,  "  But  the  point 
is,  I  got  the  space."  I  then  asked  him  to  notice 
one  other  point  —  a  most  important  point  —  that 
getting  space  in  excess  of  an  activity's  merit  is  apt 
to  open  that  activity  to  ridicule  and  to  suspicion  of 
pull,  insincerity  and  ignorance,  and  what  is  even 
more  serious,  to  undermine  the  moral  purpose  of  its 
work. 

Instead   of  hiring  a   press   agent   to   talk   about 


342  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

work  from  the  outside,  we  engaged  a  man  who 
started  at  the  bottom  to  do  each  part  of  the  or- 
ganization's work,  so  that  when  he  later  was  de- 
tailed to  publicity  work  he  had  in  mind  the  needs 
of  the  work  and  not  "  space." 

Advertising  will  sell  anything  no  matter  how 
great  a  fraud,  but  advertising  fraudulently  or  su- 
perficially will  not  remove  causes  of  distress  or  so- 
cial maladjustment.  It  will  never  be  known  what 
handicap  has  been  imposed  upon  social  progress  by 
benevolent  agencies  that  advertise  the  imaginings 
of  pen  artists,  as  in  cases  of  disaster  or  the  inven- 
tion of  a  slum  photographer  for  typical  relief  cases. 
My  colleagues  among  those  who  have  written  ap- 
peals will  remember  not  an  instance  nor  a  score  of 
instances,  but  veritably  hundreds  of  instances  where 
"  cooked  up "  illustrations  have  been  put  on  ap- 
peals for  hospital  relief  and  fresh  air  work,  that 
have  gone  so  far  as  to  use  in  one  city  a  picture  that 
has  proved  successful  in  another  city  and  have 
"  swiped  "  phrases  as  denizens  of  the  slums  are  said 
to  swipe  gold  tooth  crowns  or  other  ornaments,  or 
as  fraternity  men  exchange  neckties  without  asking. 

Given  a  situation  where  rich  men  are  seeking  the 
facts  about  needs-not-met,  spurious  "  charity  "  ad- 
vertising will  be  its  own  defeat,  while  definite  re- 
iteration of  important  fact  will  bring  the  support 
needed. 


Demanding   Evidence:   The   Evil   Repute  of 
Investigation 

Investigation  invariably  means  more  help  in  the 
aggregate,  not  less.  An  uninformed  friend  is  a  fickle 
friend  whether  that  friend  be  private  donor  or  vot- 
ing public.  Evidence  is  the  foundation  of  intelli- 
gent giving  and  persisting  sympathy.  Friendships 
may  safely  be  founded  on  personal  liking;  social 
remedies  require  evidence.  No  greater  kindness  can 
be  shown  to  any  cause  than  to  ask  it,  and  give  it  a 
chance,  to  make  out  its  case.  No  greater  compli- 
ment can  be  paid  to  any  donor  than  to  assume  that 
he  will  refuse  to  give  until  he  knows  what  his  gift 
will  do. 

We  are  educated  to  see  that  doctors  must  diag- 
nose before  they  prescribe;  that  teachers  must  ques- 
tion before  they  teach;  that  builders  must  survey 
before  they  can  build.  We  smile  at  the  volunteer 
who  pestered  a  lame  girl  to  take  a  sure  cure  for  her 
limp,  until  told  that  the  reason  the  girl  did  not  want 
to  go  to  the  hospital  was  that  her  leg  was  wooden. 
One  volunteer  working  on  our  letters  asked,  at  the 
end  of  her  first  day,  the  privilege  of  sending  $150 
to  a  woman,  about  to  be  a  mother,  needing  medical 
care,    clothes,    etc.     Upon  .questioning    she    learned 

from  the  woman's  pastor  that  the  appealer  was  liv- 

343 


344  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

ing  on  one  of  the  best  streets  of  her  city  and  needed 
no  outside  help. 

Only  by  investigation  was  the  working  girl  who 
was  in  desperate  need  of  money  for  myself  and 
mother  found  instead  to  be  in  need  of  the  immediate 
care  of  a  nerve  specialist. 

As  one  bishop  wrote,  The  chief  difficulty  I  have 
with  persons  of  wealth  is  to  secure  their  investiga^ 
tion.  We  have  a  proposition  which  can  stand  the 
closest  scrutiny.  The  need  for  such  a  school  ex- 
ists. We  have  done  our  part.  We  invite  investi- 
gation. As  a  result  our  appeal  on  every  side  is  ig- 
nored or  refused.  Will  you  kindly  give  me  some 
hints  as  to  how  to  have  the  subject  of  this  school 
presented  so  as  to  get  a  hearing  or  investigation? 

A  gentleman  was  once  saved  $1,000  by  being  told 
the  facts  about  an  "  evidently  cultivated  woman  who 
had  been  disappointed  about  the  receipt  of  certain 
funds  and  wished  the  loan  of  a  thousand  dollars  on 
furniture  insured  for  $2,400."  Yet  to  this  day  he 
does  not  believe  in  investigation.  Fortunately,  he 
can  afford  his  belief.  Most  people  cannot.  So- 
ciety cannot. 

The  ioo%  Cue 

To  have  it  known  that  large  givers,  as  a  class, 
prefer  to  give  in  ways  that  deal  with  100%  of  the 
problem  for  100%  of  a  Community,  will  cause  all 
who  read  and  think  of  large  giving  to  wonder  what 
100%  of  each  problem  is. 


THE  100%  CUE  345 

For  reasons  already  noted,  givers  will  never  look 
for  100%  of  their  opportunity  unless  it  is  made 
easy  for  them  through  the  massing  of  needs  by  a 
clearing  house  of  appeals. 

"All  flu  Kind's  horses  and  all  the  King's  men" 
cannot  make  3%  as  big  as  100%,  although  appeal- 
ing technique  will  show  the  important  relation  of 
3%  to  100%. 

Gifts  of  scholarships  to  exceptional  children  can- 
not take  the  place  of  informed  interest  in  public 
school  systems.  Red  cross  stamps  are  a  weak  sub- 
stitute for  campaigns  against  tuberculosis,  al- 
though welcome  aids.  Two  Swedish  servants  can 
be  taught  the  English  language  more  economically 
than  through  the  evening  service  of  a  talented  col- 
lege woman  who  knows  her  city's  health  needs.  Let- 
ting fresh  air  into  one  room  for  anaemic  children 
while  plans  are  drawn  for  20,000  children  who  will 
never  get  fresh  air,  is  a  cruel  way  of  befriending 
children.  Equal  pay  is  not  worth  more  to  any  city 
than  honest  and  efficient  government,  notwithstand- 
ing the  position  taken  by  New  York  City's  teachers 
in  doing  their  best  to  secure  the  passage  of  "  Equal 
Pay's  "  companion-charter,  which  would  have  done 
more  harm  in  one  year  than  school  instruction  in 
civics  and  ethics  could  overcome  in  a  generation. 

It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  we  cannot  get  along 
without  the  minor  forms  of  philanthropy.  But  it 
can  be  made  quite  as  obvious  that  so-called  minor 
forms  of  philanthropy,  so  far  as  they  are  actually 


346  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

required,  do  not  lose  their  significance  by  being  set 
against  a  background  of  100%  and  fitted  into  a 
mechanism  for  providing  100%.  It  is  natural  that 
one  link  in  a  chain  should  be  tempted  to  ask  the 
privilege  of  being  separated  from  the  chain  and  of 
being  put  off  by  itself  where  it  will  have  an  abso- 
lute instead  of  a  relative  value,  and  where  it  will 
run  no  risk  of  being  called  the  weakest  link.  But 
it  just  happens  that  the  weakest  link  in  a  chain 
loses  its  entire  significance  when  it  falls  outside  the 
chain.  Not  only  does  the  chain  cease  to  be  a  chain, 
but  the  link  ceases  to  be  more  than  a  potential  link, 
whereas,  while  in  the  chain,  it  has  whatever  impor- 
tance attaches  to  the  chain  itself. 

A  society  for  giving  food  and  clothing  is  one  of 
the  crudest  forms  of  altruism.  Yet  that  form  of 
relief  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  successful 
working  out  of  large  business,  city  planning  or  uni- 
versal education.  It  is  only  when  a  relief  policy  is 
determined  without  reference  to  other  obligations 
of  society  that  private  relief  work  becomes  of  rela- 
tive unimportance. 

Appealers  are  beginning  to  see  the  strategic  ad- 
vantage of  appealing  to  100%  of  a  man's  interest 
or  of  feathering  their  fractional  arrow  with  100% 
of  a  movement's  attraction.  Every  industrial  in- 
stitution calls  itself  a  young  Tuskegee.  To  secure 
backing  for  her  son  one  woman  asks  Mrs.  Harri- 
man  to  give  money  to  reach  every  side  of  the  child's 
life  for  health,  education  and  recreation. 


THE  1007o  CUE  Wl 

The  University  of  Oregon  did  not  weaken  its  ap- 
peal when  it  asked  not  for  the  university,  about 
which  definite  facts  were  given  as  to  cost,  revenues, 
etc,  but  for  Oregon,  the  land  of  opportunity  where 
the  future  looks  large  and  history  is  making.  On 
the  contrary,  its  statistics  of  Oregon's  industries, 
fish  catching,  Oregon  fruit,  taxable  property  and 
dairy  output  make  the  reader  agree  that  to  place  a 
strong,  well  balanced  educator  in  the  chair  of  po- 
litical science,  in  the  heart  of  the  state's  philan- 
thropic and  government  institutions,  is  among  the 
opportunities  that  await  those  who  seize  them. 

One  does  not  lose  interest  in  a  handful  of  anaemic 
children  given  hot  lunches  when  told  that  in  the 
elementary  schools  even  the  H$55  subnormal  chil- 
dren (those  suffering  from  mal-nutrition,  enlarged 
glands,  tubercular  or  mentally  defective  troubles) 
do  not  have  hot  lunches. 

The  difference  between  looking  at  social  problems 
from  the  standpoint  of  my  work  and  from  the  stand- 
point of  all  the  work  is  that  starting  from  my  work 
I  find  a  large  number  of  people  and  agencies  in  the 
road  blocking  my  success ;  whereas  if  I  start  with 
a  picture  of  all  the  work  that  needs  to  be  done,  other 
agencies  see  that  they  need  me  and  I  am  over- 
whelmed with  the  realization  of  how  much  I  need 
them. 

Nobody  pictures  all  of  New  York  City's  relief 
problem  because  we  are  now  compelled  to  think  of 
societies  instead  of  society  and  to  center  our  inter- 


348  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

est  in  the  agencies  wishing  funds  instead  of  the  in- 
dividuals needing  relief,  and  in  fractions  of  the  re- 
lief problem  instead  of  in  general  conditions  of 
which  the  relief  problem  is  but  a  symptom.  An  ef- 
fort to  picture  100%  of  the  relief  opportunity  was 
made  by  me  in  1907  in  a  brief  which  I  shall  be  glad 
to  submit  upon  request. 

Not  infrequently  people  doing  an  admirable  work 
deliberately  accept  a  small  segment  of  the  circle  on 
the  ground  that  they  are  unable  to  give  personal 
attention  to  work  compassing  360  degrees.  An 
over-busy  trustee  once  suggested  that  the  municipal 
research  movement  stop  growing  in  spite  of  calls 
from  all  over  the  country  and  increasing  calls  from 
New  York  City,  because  he  had  reached  the  limit  of 
his  personal  power  to  participate  in  the  work. 
This  is  one  reason  for  the  chopping  up  of  philan- 
thropy's field,  and  can  be  disproved  by  nothing  ex- 
cept 100%  pictures.  A  view  of  the  rest  of  the  cir- 
cle will  gradually  put  directors  of  philanthropy  in 
position  where  they  will  be  embarrassed  if  they  can- 
not prove  to  themselves  and  to  givers  that  their 
own  work  is  indispensable  to  rounding  out  the 
circle. 

Mr.  Rockefeller's  secretary  asked  several  men  in 
the  spring  of  1911  whether  it  was  really  possible  "  so 
to  divide  the  field  between  public  and  private  philan- 
thropy that  100%  of  the  job  could  be  done."  My 
reply  is  true  of  all  fields  and  of  all  philanthropy: 
it  is  infinitely  easier  and  cheaper  and  more  gratify- 


100%  CHEAP  "IN  LONG  RUN"       849 

ing  to  discover  and  do  100%  of  what  is  today  seen 
to  be  necessary  than  to  temporize  with  small  and 
conflicting  fractions  of  the  whole  opportunity. 
Neither  rich  man  nor  poor  man  has  ever  asked 
enough,  or  expected  enough,  from  the  other. 


Lodging  Responsibility  Where  it  Belongs 

Givers  will  be  less  apt  to  mis-distribute  the  bal- 
ance of  responsibility  among  private  and  public 
agencies  when  100%  of  obvious  needs  are  adver- 
tised. The  very  rich  have  no  right  to  relieve  the 
not-so-rich  of  a  share  in  giving  or  to  drive  re- 
sponsibility around  from  one  public  or  private 
agency  to  another,  as  if  playing  battledore  and 
shuttlecock.  I  have  already  mentioned  the  New 
York  Milk  Committee's  original  appeal  for  $82,000 
to  give  milk  relief  in  its  milk  stations  and  the  later 
assumption  of  responsibility  for  giving  this  relief 
by  the  three  large  agencies  that  were  already  rais- 
ing funds  for  just  that  purpose. 

Because  truant  officers  are  inefficient  is  a  reason 
for  making  them  efficient  and  not  for  giving  truancy 
work  to  an  outside  visiting  teacher.  Tardiness  of 
relief  societies  in  helping  hospital  patients  is  a  rea- 
son for  accelerating  relief  societies  and  not  for 
starting  relief  funds  in  hospitals.  Ignorance  of 
parents  regarding  the  care  of  babies  and  school 
children  is  a  reason  for  instructing  parents  and  not 
for    delegating    the    duties    of    parents    to    school 


350  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

boards.  An  error  in  computing  the  percentage  of 
teachers'  salaries  necessary  to  establish  a  pension 
fund  is  a  reason  not  for  Mrs.  Harriman's  making 
up  the  deficit,  but  for  showing  the  Virginia  legis- 
lature how  to  correct  its  error. 

The  fact  that  a  donor  can  do  so  is  no  reason  for 
giving  more  than  his  share.  For  example,  in  New 
York  there  is  a  Saturday  and  Sunday  Hospital  As- 
sociation which  makes  appeals  to  all  trades,  all 
church  goers,  all  newspaper  readers.  For  a  hand- 
ful of  people  to  give  all  the  contributions  to  this 
organization  would  be  unfair  to  the  work  and  to 
all  possible  givers.  Whatever  a  donor's  rightful 
share,  whether  $1,000  or  $50,000  a  year,  this  right- 
ful share  should  not  be  exceeded.  If  a  donor 
wishes  to  do  more  without  hurting,  the  best  way 
would  be  to  ask  for  a  list  of  things  needed  but  not 
included  in  the  general  appeal,  or  perhaps  to  con- 
tribute toward  the  expense  of  appealing  more 
widely  for  hospitals,  publishing  results  which  will 
help  get  money,  etc. 

The  fact  that  educational  systems  have  failed  to 
develop  industrial  and  vocational  schools  is  a  rea- 
son for  putting  energy  into  the  establishment  of 
such  schools  under  such  systems  of  education,  and 
is  not  a  reason  for  starting  private  and  church 
schools  on  an  infinitesimal  scale.  The  fact  that 
government  philanthropy  has  an  unsavory  reputa- 
tion is  a  reason  for  eradicating  "  politics,"  and  not 
for   relieving  government   of  its   responsibility   for 


EFFICIENCY 


C        / 


by  Society  for  Prevention  of  Mendicancy,  N.  Y.  City 


One  solution  of  the 
Crippled  Beggar  Problem 

Our  Watchwords 


From  photograph— Baltimore  Newiboyk  Auodatlon 

APPEALS  WITHOUT  WORDS 


LOCATING  RESPONSIBILITY  351 

efficient  departments  of  charities,  corrections,  plac- 
ing out  of  children,  etc. 

There  is  one  other  responsibility  which  should  be 
kept  where  it  belongs,  namely,  the  rich  man's  re- 
sponsibility for  initiating  public  improvements  of 
which  he  sees  the  need.  Responsibility  is  commen- 
surate with  vision.  Men  of  means  may  not  shift 
to  social  workers  responsibility  for  executing  pro- 
grams. When  asked  recently  to  furnish  $5,000 
with  which  to  lodge  responsibility  for  efficient 
schools  upon  a  certain  state  department  of  education, 
one  wealthy  man  replied,  "  I  cannot  do  everything." 
I  could  not  resist  suggesting  that  "  money  could." 
There  was  a  case  where  the  accident  of  one  man's 
temporary  absorption  in  already  assumed  burdens 
did  not  entitle  him  to  shift  responsibility  for  buy- 
ing service  which  he  saw  was  needed,  which  he  knew 
money  would  buy,  and  which  he  admitted  he  had  the 
money  to  buy. 

For  one  class  of  failure  in  philanthropy  rich  men 
and  women  cannot  shift  responsibility,  i.e.,  failure 
due  to  the  inadequate  backing  of  leadership  known 
to  be  efficient.  The  notable  results  that  have  been 
effected  by  the  great  foundations  did  not  grow  out 
of  a  parsimonious  policy  of  giving  about  one  tenth 
what  was  required  each  year.  On  the  contrary, 
Mr.  Rockefeller  said  to  the  General  Education 
Board :  "  Here  is  $2,500,000.  Let  me  know  what 
you  do  with  it."  When  they  described  what  they 
had  done  he  gave  first  10  and  then  30  millions  more. 


352  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

He  did  not  say  to  the  Rockefeller  Institute  of  Med- 
ical Research,  "  I  give  you  $6,000  toward  such  fund 
as  you  may  be  able  to  raise  by  passing  the  hat." 
On  the  contrary  he  gave  it  $1,250,000.  Similarly, 
he  did  not  say  to  the  people  wishing  to  eradicate 
hookworm,  "  I  will  be  glad  to  give  $1,000  toward 
your  admirable  campaign.  I  hope  you  will  not 
waste  any  of  it."  What  he  did  say  was,  "  I  want 
to  make  a  test  of  discovering  and  eradicating  the 
causes  of  hookworm.  I  shall  not  expect  this  work 
to  be  done  in  a  day  or  a  week  or  a  year.  Because 
I  see  this  opportunity  I  have  a  responsibility  not 
shared  by  those  who  do  not  yet  see  it.  I  give  you 
$1,250,000  with  the  expectation  that  the  public  will 
do  its  share  through  health  boards,  boards  of  educa- 
tion and  newspapers  when  the  time  comes  for  apply- 
ing what  you  discover."  For  the  phenomenal  re- 
sults and  the  public's  unexampled  response  send  for 
the  reports  of  the  Rockefeller  Sanitary  Commission, 
Southern  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 

One  of  the  tasks  which  Mrs.  Harriman  has  ac- 
cepted for  herself  is  to  help  prove  to  communities 
that  as  communities  they  should  not  rely  upon  a 
few  private  givers  for  doing  by  retail  what  is  needed 
by  wholesale  through  tax  supported  government 
agencies   for  health,  education  and  philanthropy. 

Only  a  clearing  house  can  enforce  each  commu- 
nity's right  to  relieve  local  distress  and  to  learn  of 
local  opportunities  for  giving  wisely.  State  and 
city  officials  have  written  in  reply  to  our  inquiries 


ENLISTING  GOVERNMENT 


353 


that  there  is  no  reason  why  persons  needing  help 
should  apply  outside  their  district.  In  places  where 
outside  help  seems  indispensable  it  will  usually  be 
found  either  that  government  agencies  should  be  en- 
listed or  that  men  and  women  of  wealth  with  resi- 
dence elsewhere  are  insiders  in  responsibility  because 
of  income  derived  from  that  locality. 


1910  BUDGET 


Public  Hearings  Arc  No!  Over! 

The   Mayor   has    granted   another. 

1Q-M0RR0W,  10.30  A.  M. 

meeting    taxpayers    more    than    half- 
way on  the  tentative  budget. 

The  Board  of  Estimate  wilt  file  the 
Budget  within  three  days.  It  will  be 
published  in  detail  in  the 

CITY  RECORD 
which  Is'  the  official  city  newspaper; 
and  will  cost  you  Just  as  triuch  as  a 
copy  of  The  Evening  Post  You  can 
tbuy  it  at  tho  newsstand  In  the  Park 
Row  Building,  or  at  Room  2,  City  Hall 
(north  side)., 

$.03 

to  loam  all  about 

$163,500,000! 

WHY  NOT? 
DON'T  FORGET  T0-M0RR0W! 


Watch  This  Space 
For  Daily   Information 


Various  Accesses  to  the  Rich 

Appealers  covet  other  access  to  the  rich  than  the 
personal  or  circular  letter.  So  we  have  in  benevo- 
lent circles  a  veritable  spider  web  philosophy  about 
different  accesses, —  the  secretary  access,  the  friend 
access,  the  family  access,  the  lawyer  access,  the  doc- 
tor access,  the  minister  access*  the  news  item  access, 
the  paid  advertisement  access,  the  social  function 
access  —  luncheon,  dinner,  commencement  exercises, 
reception  committees, —  butler  access,  lady's  maid 
access.     And  the  greatest  of  these  is  the  secretary. 

Just  in  proportion  as  the  general  public  knows 
about  community  needs  not  met  and  efficient  meth- 
ods of  meeting  needs  will  it  matter  little  who  are 
"  next  to  "  the  wealthy.  Naturally  it  is  unimpor- 
tant who  knows  a  rich  man  best,  just  in  proportion 
as  he  makes  up  his  own  mind  and  bases  his  conclu- 
sions on  evidence  sought  from  a  wide  field  rather 
than  from  immediate  acquaintances. 

So  long  as  givers  let  other  people  make  up  their 
minds  for  them,  raising  money,  like  giving  money, 
will  be  little  less  than  gambling.  It  will  go  accord- 
ing to  no  laws,  and  efficiency  in  work  will  really 
be  a  disadvantage  in  a  competition  where  irresponsi- 
bility and  incompetence  may  make  unfounded  claims 
and  play  upon  the  weakness  of  the  individual  giver. 

Until  givers  make  up  their  own  minds,  the  strata- 

354 


"ACCESS"  OR  INFORMATION?       555 

gem  of  access  is  of  great  importance  to  those  who 
are  willing  to  raise  money  by  other  routes  than  in- 
formation. 

The   Secretary  Access 

It  will  always  pay  to  make  the  best  possible  use 
of  the  secretary  access.  One  of  the  first  qualifica- 
tions of  an  executive  officer  of  the  up-to-date  chari- 
table agency  is  that  he  shall  be  able  to  get  "  next  " 
to  the  secretaries  of  potential  givers. 

Do  not  make  the  mistake  of  letting  the  secretary 
know  that  you  think  he  "  will  not  do."  If  you  hap- 
pen to  find  him  in  it  is  much  better  to  make  a  con- 
fidant of  him  than  try  to  get  back  of  him.  Your 
chance  of  entree  is  almost  nil  if  you  affront  the  sec- 
retary either  by  marking  letters  Personal  which 
you  know  must  go  by  his  desk,  or  by  failing  to  com- 
municate to  him  what  passes  for  a  message  or  a 
frank  inquiry  when  you  unfortunately  stumble  upon 
him.  Secretaries  pride  themselves  on  their  success 
in  "  taking  it  out  of  "  great  men  and  little  men  who 
try  to  "  go  over  their  heads  "  to  their  principals. 
You  can  always  afford  to  send  the  biggest  men  con- 
nected with  your  work  to  interview  the  secretary 
of  any  giver  you  are  trying  to  reach. 

There  are  two  real  dangers  in  connection  with 
secretaries  that  are  not  connected  with  letters  of 
appeal,  namely,  (1)  that  those  having  first  hand 
contact  with  the  facts  will  gradually  want  to  deter- 
mine the   ultimate   use  which  shall   be   made  of  the 


$56  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

facts,  and  (2)  that  the  susceptibilities  of  the  secre- 
tary will  tempt  him  to  play  favorites.  A  frank  dis- 
cussion of  the  problem  of  giving  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  secretary  access  would  be  worth  while 
because  it  is  unquestionably  true  of  many  givers 
that  their  decisions,  rejections  and  gifts  are  the  re- 
sult of  wire  pulling  centered  not  on  themselves  but 
on  their  secretaries.  One  nation  wide  need  that  I 
failed  to  include  is  a  training  school  for  secretaries 
to  rich  men  and  women. 

The  Family  Access 

The  family  access  is  not  worth  while  as  a  rule 
(givers  must  live  peacefully  and  without  suspicion 
with  their  families).  It  is  better  to  spend  lunch 
money  or  other  methods  of  indirection,  upon  secre- 
taries, professional  advisers  or  subordinate  em- 
ployees than  upon  members  of  the  family.  Take 
pains,  however,  that  people  in  the  household  are 
kept  informed  and  interested. 

Valet,  lady's  maid,  subordinate  employees  of 
household  and  office  are  all  requisitioned  into  service 
as  accesses.  There  are  many  little  ways  in  which 
they  are  influenced  to  repay  superfluous  courtesies. 

The  Professional  Man  Access 

Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  for  rich 
men  and  women  to  seek  advice  regarding  public 
gifts   from  the  professional  man  —  lawyer,   doctor, 


PROFESSIONAL  MAN  ACCESS         Wl 

minister,  dentist, —  whom  they  expect  to  be  disin- 
terested. Because  no  handful  of  doctors  and  law- 
yers can  have  a  monopoly  on  rich  men's  acquaint- 
ance, the  safest  way  for  uplift  work  is  to  make  sure 
that  all  professional  men  are  sufficiently  familiar 
with  all  kinds  of  social  work.  Then  they  will  feel 
that  it  is  not  professionally  proper  for  them  to 
lobby  for  their  particular  favored  benevolences,  or 
to  conceal  from  their  rich  friends  a  knowledge  of 
competing  agencies  or  of  work  in  collateral  fields. 

Instead  of  trying  to  win  away  from  organizations 
the  ministers,  lawyers  and  physicians  who  have  been 
made  partisans,  try  to  interest  lawyers  as  a  class, 
physicians  as  a  class,  etc,  in  your  particular  work. 
Finally,  aim  to  help  those  who  are  able  to  give,  to 
be  independent  of  advice  from  physicians  and  law- 
yers. Teach  them  how  to  detect  personal  interest 
if  their  professional  advisers  give  them  views,  in- 
stead of  information,  when  questioned  about  benevo- 
lence. 

Nothing,  except  to  have  information  about  benev- 
olent work,  will  prevent  incidents  like  the  following: 
A  lawyer  called  me  on  the  telephone  to  say  that  he 
was  wording  a  will  for  $150,000.  His  client  had  no 
plan  whatever  and  had  practically  asked  him  to  as- 
sign this  money.  He  did  not  feel  that  it  was  fair 
to  the  client  to  put  all  these  eggs  in  one  basket,  nor 
did  he  want  to  feel  that  he  was  promoting  his  own 
interests.  He  therefore  asked  for  a  list  of  agencies 
doing  work  for  children. 


358  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Another  lawyer  told  me  that  he  had  just  drawn 
a  will  for  $3,000,000  for  a  client  who  wanted  to 
give  all  of  it  to  a  certain  institution  that  was  "  so 
near  dead  that  all  it  needs  to  kill  it  outright  is 
to  wake  up  some  morning  and  find  that  a  friend  has 
died  and  left  it  $3,000,000." 

The  News  Item  Access  and  the  Paid  Advertise- 
ment 

Facts  circulated  among  all  shapers  of  opinion, 
lecturers,  writers,  club  leaders,  teachers  will  take 
the  present  premium  from  the  different  accesses  by 
indirection. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  parts  of  my  experi- 
ence with  these  letters  has  been  my  contact  with 
representatives  of  colleges  and  civic  agencies  who, 
after  being  told  that  we  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  Mrs.  Harriman's  giving,  asked  us  for  ad- 
vice as  to  "  how  to  reach  her  "  or  "  the  best  person 
to  go  to  in  order  to  get  at "  Mr.  A.  or  Mr.  B.  I 
advised  everyone  not  only  as  a  matter  of  ethics  but 
as  a  matter  of  tactics,  to  approach  Mrs.  Harriman 
directly.  In  urging  this  same  course  with  other 
givers  I  realize  that,  while  the  principle  may  be 
sound,  there  are  still  many  givers  who  prefer  indi- 
rection, just  as  there  are  many  men  and  women  now 
responsible  for  raising  money  who  are  dependent 
upon  indirection  for  their  success. 

The  emancipation  of  donors  from  access  by  indi- 
rection is  another  nation  wide  need  that  the  clear- 


ACCESS  YIELDS  TO  FACTS 


tm 


ing  house  for  appeals  will  help  us  meet.  The  other 
day  a  man  showed  me  a  spider  web  plan  which  his 
literary  skill  and  study  of  psychology  were  enabling 
him  to  construct  and  make  attractive  to  several 
large  givers.  He  was  counting  upon  an  elation 
which  rich  men  and  women  are  supposed  to  feel  as 
they  picture  themselves  in  the  role  of  deciding  other 
people's  destinies.  Yet  there  is  now  no  way  to 
warn  his  quarries  except  through  an  impersonal 
editorial  or  chapter  like  this  that  they  are  being 
analyzed  like  biological  specimens  and  made  ready 
to  be  victims  of  various  spider  web  plans.  Thus, 
in  many  a  benefaction  announced  at  some  public 
function  under  the  spell  of  enthusiasm,  with  all  the 
appearance  of  spontaneous  generosity,  the  rich 
man's  part  in  the  play  is  merely  that  of  Polonius. 


THIS  enterprise  has  no  debt, 
but  it  has  needs. 

Jf  Christian  colleges  arc  needed  anywhere 
in  the  United  States  surely  Utah  needs  one. 

The  Mormon  Church  has  many  academies 
and  two  colleges,  where  every  teacher  is  a 
Mormon  and  every  student  is  required  to  take 
a  course  in  Mormon  theology. 


Scientific  Management  in  Volunteer  Public  Service 

Waste  is  a  result  of  method  rather  than  of  motive 
and  is  to  be  cured  by  method  not  by  motive. 

There  are  few  cities  that  waste  as  large  a  pro- 
portion of  their  resources  as  does  the  average 
housewife.  With  all  their  defects,  politicians  have 
worked  out  a  more  efficient  machinery  by  which  all 
of  us  can  cooperate  in  matters  of  government  than 
have  volunteer  agencies  for  accomplishing  the  pur- 
poses of  women's  clubs,  merchants'  associations, 
voters'  leagues,  etc.  In  no  relation  have  men  and 
women  departed  further  from  the  principles  of  sci- 
entific management  than  in  their  public  giving, 
whether  of  money  or  of  service.  To  inoculate  vol- 
unteer agencies  with  the  virus  of  scientific  manage- 
ment and  to  inspire  them  with  the  gospel  of  effi- 
ciency would  be  one  of  the  continuing  services  of  a 
clearing  house  for  appeals. 

The  New  York  Child  Welfare  Exhibit  of  1911 
has  been  so  widely  advertised,  has  spent  so  much 
money,  has  had  such  a  vast  opportunity,  and  repre- 
sents so  many  tendencies  in  giving,  that  I  am  ven- 
turing to  use  it  to  illustrate  the  need  for  scientific 
management  in  volunteer  public   service. 

On  its  board  were  represented  the  principal  wel- 
fare agencies  of  New  York  City.  The  members  of 
its    working   committees   were   identified   with   every 

360 


VOLUNTEER  EFFICIENCY  361 

kind  of  child  caring  work.  To  judge  from  the 
prospectus  of  this  exhibit  and  the  imposing  names 
on  its  letterhead,  there  was  every  reason  to  believe 
that  a  100%  picture  of  children's  needs  and  work 
for  children  would  be  given. 

There  were  several  men  in  New  York  who,  in  five 
months  time  and  with  $5,000,  could  have  produced 
a  better  description  of  New  York's  work  for  chil- 
dren than  had  been  produced  by  the  expenditure 
of  25  months  and  $100,000. 

Because  I  believe  that  there  is  little  hope  of  effi- 
ciency and  honesty  in  government  and  in  community 
efforts  to  do  away  with  community  evils,  so  long 
as  those  engaged  in  private  philanthropy  believe 
that  harm  will  result  from  admitting  past  incom- 
petence or  error,  I  am  relating  at  length  a  number 
of  incidents  that  have  to  do  with  this  Child  Wel- 
fare Exhibit.  They  are  typical  of  things  happen- 
ing in  individual  philanthropies,  as  well  as  in  gov- 
ernment  offices. 

Twice  did  the  Child  Welfare  Committee,  with  its 
eyes  wide  open,  decide  not  to  hold  this  exhibit  of 
children's  needs  at  or  near  the  time  when  New  York 
City's  government  was  considering  its  method  of 
meeting  children's  needs  —  that  is,  preparing  its 
budgets  for  1910  and  1911. 

The  first  decision  was  made  on  the  ground  that 
the  money  raisers  for  the  Child  Welfare  Exhibit  ex- 
pected to  get  a  good  part  of  their  help  from  per- 
sons who  would  be  suspicious  if  the  Child  Welfare 


362  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Exhibit  were  to  be  connected  in  any  way  with  the 
city's  responsibility  for  using  the  knowledge  to  be 
gained  from  the  exhibit. 

The  standardizing  was  done,  not  when  plans  were 
made,  but  when  the  time  came  to  put  the  exhibit  up, 
so  that  screens  for  various  private  agencies  and  for 
the  central  committee,  which  cost  thousands  and 
thousands  of  dollars,  were  never  used. 

Had  the  exhibits  by  the  health  department,  board 
of  education  and  public  libraries  —  already  better 
shown  the  preceding  October  at  the  official  Budget 
Exhibit  —  been  subtracted  from  the  Child  Welfare 
Exhibit,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  managers  would  have 
had  the  courage  to  open  the  exhibit.  Had  the 
school  children  not  been  literally  taken  to  the  ex- 
hibit by  orders  from  headquarters  —  orders  with- 
held at  budget  time  when  their  attendance  might 
have  helped  secure  money  for  school  —  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  the  total  attendance  over  the  month  would 
have  been  one-fifth  as  large  as  it  was. 

The  point  I  am  urging  is  that  the  inefficiency  and 
extravagance  in  this  case  were  not  necessary  and 
accidental,  but  were  actually  seen  in  advance  by 
many  of  the  men  and  women  who  gave  their  names 
as  managers,  if  not  by  the  men  and  women  who 
gave  the  money.  I  told  a  responsible  officer  of  the 
finance  committee  eleven  months  before  the  exhibit 
was  given  what  would  certainly  happen  unless  steps 
were  taken  to  secure  greater  efficiency  in  manage- 
ment.    They   were  told  by   other  men   and  women 


VOLUNTEER  EFFICIENCY  363 

who  knew  and  who  gave  conclusive  evidence;  they 
were  told  by  their  own  employees ;  they  saw  it  when 
they  went  to  committee  meetings;  they  saw  it  when 
they  were  forced  to  announce  repeated  postpone- 
ments; they  frankly  discussed  it  among  themselves 
and  with  many  outsiders ;  and  yet,  because  of  a  tra- 
dition in  private  giving  which  makes  the  public 
tolerant  and  the  spender  apologetic,  the  public  and 
the  givers  in  New  York  were  prevented  from  learn- 
ing the  truth. 

One  of  its  officers  said  to  me  that  he  was  praying 
that  one  person  who  had  given  them  a  very  large 
sum  of  money  for  the  exhibit  would  never  learn 
the  facts  about  its  use,  particularly  about  the  defi- 
cits. I  replied  that  I  thought  it  was  a  very  great, 
mistake,  and  unfair  not  alone  to  the  giver  but  to  the 
millions  whom  he  might  help  if  he  gave  wisely,  not 
to  let  him  know  that  in  this  particular  instance  the 
methods  employed  were  such  as  largely  to  defeat 
the  very  purpose  of  his  giving. 

Strong  as  the  following  statement  is,  I  am  pre- 
pared to  support  it  —  that  in  six  years'  investiga- 
tion of  public  spending,  including  a  number  of  de- 
partments managed  by  so-called  Tammany  heal- 
ers, the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  has  never 
found  a  wider  gap  between  what  might  have  been 
done  with  the  money  and  what  was  done,  than  was 
the  case  with  the  Child  Welfare  Exhibit.  At  the 
very  time  this  exhibit  was  incurring  deficits  at  a 
rate   which   would   mean   millions   in   city   expenses, 


364  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Mayor  Gaynor  was  promising  to  dismiss  any  de- 
partment head  who  exceeded  his  appropriation. 

Conclusive  evidence  of  this  is  the  work  done  by 
the  Chicago  group  who  brought  the  New  York  ex- 
hibit out  to  Chicago.  They  saw  the  need  for  doing 
what  was  not  done  in  New  York  City  —  giving  in 
one  column  all  that  Chicago's  children  needed,  in 
the  next  column  what  Chicago's  children  were  get- 
ting, and  in  the  third  column  what  remained  to  be 
done  for  Chicago's  children. 

For  a  few  hundred  dollars  an  exhibit  was  given 
at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  in  connection  with  the  New  Jer- 
sey State  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections, 
which  left  more  definite  ideas  of  work  to  be  done 
than  could  have  been  gathered  from  the  hundred 
thousand  dollars  spent  on  the  New  York  exhibit. 

On  the  executive  committee  were  prominent  law- 
yers ;  editor  of  a  magazine  of  enormous  national  cir- 
culation; two  members  and  one  examiner  of  the 
board  of  education.  On  the  special  committees  were 
the  leading  names  of  the  respective  related  fields. 

It  is  a  practical  certainty  that  there  never  will  be 
a  cost  account  rendered  of  New  York's  Child  Wel- 
fare Exhibit. 

Everything  that  I  have  said  is  quite  compatible 
with  the  admission  that  the  advertising  of  this  ex- 
hibit by  the  newspapers  and  the  attending  discus- 
sion of  the  things  that  ought  to  be  done  for  chil- 
dren might  have  justified  an  expenditure  of  millions 
of  dollars.     This  answer  is  no  more  relevant  than 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  NEEDED     365 

that  extravagance  and  incompetence  in  church  and 
mission  work  should  go  unchecked  because  a  human 
soul  is  priceless,  or  that  Tammanyism  of  whatever 
party  of  whatever  city  is  defensible  because  the  city 
is  growing  prosperous  and  beautiful. 

gfoout 

3KHmona'£  Jf  (nance* 

C|  Thorough  examination,  Books  and  Accounts,  made  last  Fall : 

|J  Not  only  no  dishonesty  or  seeking  for  personal  gain,  but   on 

other  hand  work  of  Association  carried  on  at  considerable  sacrifice 

on  part  of  most  of  officers. 
€J  Certain   assets   can  be   disposed  of  without  injury  to   work  of 

Association. 
C|  Plan  for  re-financing  has  our  entire  endorsement. 
Q  Current  receipts  of  Summer  Assembly  now  sufficient  to  meet 

operating  expenses. 

Certified  Public  Accountant* 
April  a,  191a 


The   Budgets  of  Private   Philanthropy 

When  a  New  York  millionaire  plans  an  automo- 
bile trip  through  the  Berkshires,  Brittany,  the  lake 
regions  of  England,  he  is  able  to  consult  a  road 
map.  If  that  same  millionaire  wants  to  give  away 
$5,000  or  $5,000,000  he  must  work  without  a  road 
map. 

If  a  New  York  millionaire  wants  to  invest  $5,000 
or  $5,000,000  in  dividend  bearing  stock  he  is  able 
to  consult  a  stock  list  which  gives  the  essential  facts 
regarding  hundreds  of  opportunities  for  investment, ' 
or  he  can  go  to  a  broker  who  is  just  as  willing  to 
buy  for  him  one  stock  as  another.  If  that  same 
millionaire  wishes  to  invest  his  money  in  practical 
philanthropy,  education  or  civic  betterment  he  can 
find  no  list  of  opportunities,  and  heretofore  it  has 
been  next  to  impossible  to  find  an  "  opportunity 
broker  "  who  was  both  able  and  willing  to  give  in- 
formation without  attempting  to  influence  the  in- 
vestor's decision. 

The  motorist,  bicyclist  or  pedestrian  tourist  does 
not  ask  the  manager  or  proprietor  of  a  Swiss  hotel 
whether  that  hotel  offers  the  best  accommodations 
on  the  road ;  instead  he  consults  a  road  map.  But 
in  the  majority  of  instances  if  he  wants  to  give 
away  money,  he  is  compelled  to  seek  advice  from  the 
people  who  want  and  particularly  need  his  money. 

366 


BUDGETING  PHILANTHROPY        367 

'A  New  York  business  man  can  get  impartial  help 
in  discriminating  between  conservative  and  non-con- 
servative business  investments.  When  he  invests  in 
philanthropy,  however,  the  only  list  that  he  finds 
available  contains  conservative  and  non-conserva- 
tive, efficient  and  inefficient,  necessary  and  unneces- 
sary, obsolete  and  progressive;  in  fact,  the  intro- 
duction to  this  list  warns  him  in  full-faced  type  that 
"while  an  effort  has  been  made  to  exclude 
frauds,  the  fact  that  an  agency  is  found  in  the 
Directory  should  not  be  taken  as  an  endorse- 
ment of  it,  nor  as  a  guarantee  of  its  efficiency 
and  usefulness."  If  he  sets  out  to  learn  the  rela- 
tive effectiveness  of  the  several  hundred  agencies 
listed,  he  must  turn  either  to  persons  responsible  for 
raising  money  for  those  agencies,  to  "  friends  in 
court,"  or  to  some  one  agency  prevented  from  see- 
ing the  situation  as  a  whole  by  its  own  need  for 
funds  and  its  own  responsibility  to  a  small  group  of 
trustees  or  contributors. 

In  philanthropy,  as  in  motoring  or  in  stock  buy- 
ing, the  guide  cannot  show  what  the  guide  does  not 
know.  As  yet  no  guides  and  no  users  of  guides 
have  tried  to  learn  and  to  put  into  one  picture  a  list 
of  opportunities  for  giving.  Thus  our  giving  has 
been  largely  in  the  dark.  And  we  have  been  com- 
pelled to  think  in  the  dark  about  giving,  or  else  to 
give  and  to  think  about  giving  in  the  blinding  light 
of  partisan  statement. 

The  results  of  this  work  in  the  dark  have  on  the 


368  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

whole  been  less  satisfactory  to  the  giver  than  to  the 
charitable  agency.  The  giver  has  too  often  bought 
disappointment  and  while  there  are  a  few  princely 
givers  —  men  and  women  —  they  would  probably 
be  the  first  to  admit  how  harassing  is  the  problem 
of  giving  and  how  unsatisfactory  the  conditions  un- 
der which  they  give.  Counting  out  this  handful  of 
men  and  women  who  "  give  to  everything,"  it  is 
true  that  not  one  man  or  woman  in  1,000  and  not 
one  millionaire  in  100  begins  to  give  what  he  ought 
to  give  and  what  he  would  enjoy  giving  if  his  intelli- 
gence were  appealed  to  as  well  as  his  pocketbook. 

It  has  been  customary  to  blame  the  giver  for  this 
condition,  but  after  studying  methods  of  appealing 
and  giving  in  this  country  for  a  number  of  years  I 
am  convinced  that  the  trouble  has  been  with  our 
appealing  rather  than  with  our  giving.  We  must 
make  it  as  easy  for  the  giver  to  learn  about  needs 
not  yet  met  as  it  now  is  for  him  to  learn  where  there 
are  unimproved  properties  on  which  to  build  coun- 
try estates  or  charming  bungalows. 

In  other  words,  the  giver  needs  a  broker  who  will 
furnish  him  the  kind  of  information  with  regard  to 
opportunities  for  giving  that  the  stock  broker  fur- 
nishes with  regard  to  bonds. 

Better  still,  the  giver  needs  an  attorney  who  is 
jealously  studying  opportunities  for  efficient  giving, 
as  heads  of  charitable  agencies  are  acting  as  at- 
torneys and  personal  representatives  for  their  agen- 
cies. 


SIX  BUDGETS  NEEDED  369 

We  have  organized  our  appealing  in  such  a  way 
that  while  the  charitable  agency  is  always  repre- 
sented and  the  beneficiary  is  sometimes  represented, 
the  giver  is  almost  never  represented.  It  is  not 
even  assumed  for  the  most  part  that  the  giver  is  as 
anxious  to  give  as  the  beneficiary  is  to  be  relieved. 
Of  course,  in  many  instances  this  would  not  be  true. 
But  it  is  true  that  the  proportion  of  givers  who 
really  want  to  give  is  greater  than  the  proportion 
of  beneficiaries  who  want  to  be  helped  in  the  par- 
ticular ways  that  so-called  scientific  charity  is  will- 
ing to  help. 

A  list  of  alternatives,  more  than  anything  else, 
will  help  us  base  giving  and  appealing  on  the  as- 
sumption that  men  who  have  money  to  give  want 
to  give,  and  are  willing  to  pay  for  the  pleasure  of 
giving  wisely. 

Taking  money  from  a  rich  man  for  a  so-called 
good  cause,  without  presenting  alternatives  to  him, 
is  not  much  -higher  in  the  ethical  scale  than  taking 
money  from  a  poor  man  by  means  of  a  monopoly. 

There  are  six  sets  of  plans  and  needs  which 
should  be  worked  out  as  road  maps  for  givers,  i.e., 
"budgeted": 

1.  100%  list  of  municipal  needs 

2.  The  budget  of  municipal  needs  to  be  met  by 

public  philanthropy 

3.  The  budget  of  municipal  needs  to  be  met  by 

private  philanthropy 

4.  The  charitable  agency's  budget 


370  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

5.  The  giver's  own  charity  budget 

6.  The  budget  of  needs  adequately  met 

Each  should  be  submitted  to  givers  and  to  the  pub- 
lic on  the  principle  of  the  classified  segregated  bud- 
get of  public  business  now  in  effect  in  New  York 
City  and  recently  promulgated  for  national  depart- 
ments. Classified  means  things  of  a  kind  should  be 
kept  together,  health  with  health,  education  with 
education,  special  salaries  by  themselves,  mainte- 
nance repairs  by  themselves,  etc;  or  fresh  air  char- 
ity with  fresh  air  charity,  etc;  estimates  should  be 
made  in  advance  of  decision  in  time  for  discussion ; 
comparative  totals  should  show  this  year  side  by 
side  with  last  year,  etc.  Segregated  means  that 
changes  should  be  made  from  original  decisions  only 
on  the  basis  of  evidence,  i.e.,  sticking  to  the  original 
plan  until  shown  adequate  reason  for  change. 

ioo%   List  of  Municipal  Needs 

Before  meeting  its  needs  a  community,  consisting 
of  citizens  as  taxpayers  and  citizens  as  private  giv- 
ers, must  first  picture  those  needs.  Towering  above 
all  other  next  steps  in  improving  government  as 
well  as  private  philanthropy,  is  the  need  for  budget- 
ing 100%  of  each  community's  needs.  For  exam- 
ple, the  Chicago  Child  Welfare  Exhibit's  pamphlet 
above  mentioned  which  emphasized  not  merely  the 
attractions  of  its  exhibit  and  the  splendid  work  done 
by  the  private  and  public  agencies  there  exhibiting 
but  (1)  100%  of  the  work  that  should  be  done  for 


BUDGETING  MUNICIPAL  NEEDS     371 

the  children  of  Chicago;  (2)  100%  of  the  work 
already  being  done  for  the  children  of  Chicago;  (3) 
100%  of  the  work  not  yet  done  which  should  be  be- 
gun. 

It  is  because  of  their  general  impressionistic 
100%  pictures  of  social  needs  that  socialism  and 
other  short  cuts  to  universal  happiness  show  such 
attractiveness.  As  the  goals  aimed  at  are  broken 
into  definite  next  steps,  the  picture  does  not  become 
less  attractive  but  the  reform  measures  do  become 
more  practical.  No  philanthropist  and  no  private, 
or  public  agency,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  tried 
to  find  out  100%  of  the  needs  of  a  municipality  or 
state  or  nation.  Necessarily,  therefore,  no  one  has 
as  yet  tried  to  find  out  100%  of  the  work  which 
should  be  done  by  government,  or  100%  of  the 
work  which  should  be  done  by  private  benevolence. 

The    Budget   of   Municipal    Needs   to   be    Met   by 
Public  Philanthropy 

The  greater  part  of  the  field  served  by  almost  all 
private  benevolences  is  covered  by  government,  not 
private  agencies.  Sometimes  private  funds  play 
the  leading  role  and  public  agencies  supplement. 
Usually  the  leading  role  is  played  by  public  agencies 
while  private  philanthropy  supplements,  e.g.,  educa- 
tion, playgrounds,  health,  corrections.  Because  the 
only  philanthropy  for  which  all  citizens  share  re- 
sponsibility is  government  philanthropy,  the  individ- 
ual's  budget  of  municipal  needs   should  start  with 


372  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

those  needs  which  all  the  public,  through  taxes, 
should  attempt  to  meet.  For  example,  every  well- 
informed  giver  should  ask  before  giving  to  the  cause 
of  education, —  How  much  of  this  educational  work 
ought  government  itself  to  undertake?  How  much 
is  it  actually  doing?  So  the  person  interested  in 
sick  relief  should  start  with  the  question, —  How 
much  sick  relief  ought  government  to  undertake  in 
my  community?  How  much  is  it  actually  under- 
taking?    How  much  is  it  actually  providing? 

WILL  YOU   ORGANIZE   AN  EXHIBIT   IN 
YOUR  TOWNP 

WHO 
WANTS 
MORE 

INTEREST  IN  CITY  CHILDREN        INTEREST  ON  CITY  DEBT 
CLEAN  MILK  SICK  BABIES 

VISITING  NURSES  NOT-YET  KNOWING  MOTHERS 

OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLROOMS  TUBERCULOUS  CHILDREN 

PROBATION  OFFICERS  CONFIRMED  OFFENDERS 

TENEMENT  INSPECTION  FIRE  TRAPS 

HONEST  WEIGHTS  &  MEASURES  EXPLOITED  PUBLIC 

SCHOOL  HYGD2NB  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS 

BUDGET  REFORM  UNREALIZED  SOCIAL  IDEALS 

DO     YOU? 

From  estimates  prepared  by  health  officers,  chari- 
ties  commissioners,  school  trustees,  juvenile  courts, 


PUBLIC  PHILANTHROPY'S  BUDGET     373 

etc,  the  givers  should  see  that  a  clear  picture  is  had 
of  all  that  the  taxpayers  are  now  pledged  to  do, 
and  all  that  they  should  undertake  to  do.  One 
purpose  of  this  study  of  the  municipal  budget  for 
philanthropic  purposes  is  to  show  the  private  citi- 
zen what  remains  to  be  done  from  private  funds. 
It  will  also,  however,  lead  him  to  appreciate  the  im- 
portance of  the  public  treasury  and  particularly  of 
the  public  budget,  its  methods  and  restrictions,  the 
time  when  estimates  are  prepared  and  discussed  and 
rejections  made,  the  time  when  the  final  budget 
is  compiled,  discussed  and  voted. 

Outlining  what  government  should  do  is  part  of 
the  duty  of  every  private  philanthropy  at  least  so 
far  as  its  own  field  is  concerned.  Effort  to  estimate 
100%  of  those  municipal  needs  for  which  govern- 
ment is  responsible  has  thus  far  made  greatest  head- 
way in  New  York  City  where,  for  the  last  four 
years,  department  heads,  social  workers  and  other 
taxpayers  and  citizens  have  been  requested,  by  spe- 
cial invitation  from  the  board  of  estimate  and  ap- 
portionment, to  participate  in  compiling  and  ex- 
plaining a  list  of  100%  of  the  needs  which  should 
be  met  through  government  in  what  is  called  de- 
partmental budget  estimates.  These  estimates  in- 
clude not  only  current  expenses  for  the  next  year, 
i.e.,  how  much  for  parks,  hospitals,  schools,  police, 
attendance  officers,  social  welfare  nurses,  etc,  but 
also  how  much  for  new  buildings,  new  parks,  new 
streets    and   other   permanent   improvements   needed 


374  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

A   CIVIC 


MOVEMENT 

(Top  of  an  appeal  cover) 

within  five  years.  For  example,  in  1912  no  less 
than  150  agencies  in  New  York  City  were  repre- 
sented in  a  conference  which  agreed  to  work  through 
a  single  representative  committee  in  outlining  100% 
of  school  needs  that  should  be  met  by  the  public  bud- 
get. 

After  the  public  budget  is  voted,  the  difference 
between  money  voted  and  money  needed  discloses 
opportunity  for  private  philanthropy,  i.e.,  requests 
for  25  school  visitors,  10  playground  attendants,  24 
dental  examiners,  a  municipal  reference  librarian. 
For  information  regarding  public  needs  being  met 
by  public  philanthropy,  address  the  Bureau  of  Mu- 
nicipal Research,  New  York  City. 

The   Budget   of   Municipal   Needs   to  be   Met   by 
Private  Philanthropy 

The  need  for  private  philanthropy  in  meeting 
municipal  needs  is  measured  by  two  factors:  (a) 
the  difference  between  what  government  should  do 
and  what  it  gets  done;  (b)  other  municipal  needs 
such  as  material  relief  in  homes,  placing  out  of 
children,  certain  forms  of  rescue  work,  settlement 
work,  religious  instruction,  etc,  which  public  opin- 
ion, by  ruling  majority,  at  present  believes  should 


PRIVATE    PHILANTHROPY'S    BUDGET     375 

be  undertaken  through  private  not  governmental 
agencies. 

Oftentimes  the  reason  given  by  public  officials  for 
not  doing  a  certain  work  is  that  it  belongs  to  pri- 
vate rather  than  public  work.  This  is  another  way 
of  challenging  private  philanthropy  to  do  its  part. 
Again,  oftentimes  public  officials  are  not  yet  ready 
to  begin  a  movement  or  extend  their  plans.  The 
discussions  which  urge  taxpayers  to  provide  for  new 
needs  in  public  budgets  also  help  to  lodge  responsi- 
bility upon  such  private  citizens  as  see  these  needs 
to  meet  them  from  private  funds,  until  the  public 
can  be  persuaded  to  take  them  over,  as  is  done  so 
often  with  school  needs.      (See  pp.  387-88.) 

With  respect  to  private  philanthropy's  share,  we 
have  reached  the  point  where  progress  can  hardly 
be  expedited  unless  we  are  willing  to  hold  private 
philanthropy  rigidly  accountable  for  work  done  and 
not  done  within  its  sphere,  just  as  we  are  coming 
to  hold  public  philanthropy.  When  private  philan- 
thropy knowingly  or  unknowingly  deflects  public 
attention  from  public  administration  it  may  easily 
do  more  harm  than  good. 


TO  MEET 


A  CIVIC  NEED 


(Bottom  of  the  same  cover) 


376  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

The   Charitable  Agency's  Own  Budget 

Having  subtracted  what  government  gets  done 
from  what  government  should  do  in  each  field,  we 
can  see  how  much  remains  to  be  done  by  all  private 
agencies  in  that  field.  A  given  agency,  such  as  a 
hospital,  should  then  measure  what  it  is  doing 
against  the  total  need  of  the  hospital  field  and 
should  prepare,  for  what  it  proposes  to  do  next 
year,  the  same  kind  of  budget  that  a  modern  effi- 
cient city  is  supposed  to  prepare  for  city  expenses. 
In  every  community  there  should  be  some  budget 
making  body  which  will  call  attention  to  fractions 
of  each  field  covered  neither  by  government  nor  by 
private  agencies.  The  charitable  agency's  own 
budget  should  contain  a  definite  statement  of  the 
amount  of  each  kind  of  work  which  it  proposes  to 
do,  the  cost,  the  funds  available  for  meeting  that 
cost,  the  amount  remaining  to  be  raised,  the  change 
from  last  year  in  each  item,  and  the  reason  for  each 
change.      (See  pp.  122-9.) 

Emergencies  are  provided  for  by  voting  a  "  con- 
tingent "  or  "  miscellaneous  "  or  "  emergency  "  al- 
lowance. This  budget  should  be  voted  before  any 
part  of  it  is  spent.  No  change  from  its  provisions 
should  be  made  without  careful  explanation  and 
formal  vote.  Several  efficient  agencies  are  now  bud- 
geting their  plans  in  this  way. 

In  every  case  it  will  strengthen  the  individual 
budget  to  show  how  much  of  the  general  municipal 
needs  it  is  meeting,  i.e.,  how  necessary  it  is  to  the 


PRIVATE    PHILANTHROPY'S    BUDGET     377 

general  municipal  forward  program.  The  person 
appealed  to,  the  trustees,  regular  contributors,  and 
competing  agencies,  should  be  able  to  see  at  a  glance 
100%  of  what  is  needed,  100%  of  what  the  agen- 
cies of  a  class  and  each  agency  should  be  able  to 
do,  100%  of  what  each  agency  and  all  of  a  class 
combined  are  equipped  to  do,  100%  of  what  remains 
to  be  undertaken. 

The  Giver's  Own  Charity  Budget 

The  individual  giver  would  do  well  to  budget 
those  needs  in  which  he  is  interested  and  also  his 
gifts,  just  as  cities  and  philanthropic  agencies  are 
beginning  to  budget  their  needs.  His  list  should  be 
specific,  i.e.,  100%  of  what  I  should  like  to  do,  100% 
of  what  I  am  able  to  do,  100%  of  what  I  am  doing, 
100%  of  what  I  am  leaving  undone. 

The  way  in  which  so  many  wealthy  people  make 
up  their  charity  lists  is  well  indicated  by  a  phrase 
which  wealthy  men  on  appealing  committees  fre- 
quently insert :  "  Will  you  not  include  this  worthy 
charity  when  you  make  up  your  charity  list?" 

Makers  of  such  lists  complete  their  giving  early 
in  the  season  and  write  to  late  appealers,  "  I  have 
already  exhausted  the  amount  which  I  have  set  aside 
for  charitable  purposes."  So  far  as  this  suggests 
a  businesslike  apportionment  of  expenses  and  a  bud- 
getary plan  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  to  be 
changed  only  by  a  change  of  facts,  it  is  certainly 
commendable.     But  from  what  one  sees  of  the  actual 


378  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

making  of  these  lists,  too  often  the  chief  principle 
observed  is  that  gifts  shall  not  exceed  a  sum  more 
or  less  arbitrarily  set  aside.  No  pretense  is  made 
of  weighing  alternatives.  Thus  the  accident  of  a 
donor's  having  given  five  years  ago  or  fifteen  years 
ago  last  Christmas,  after  some  particular  appeal, 
creates  a  donation  which  has  since  been  continued 
on  his  charity  list  and  goes  on  from  year  to  year 
as  a  "  preferred  claim." 

One  not  infrequently  hears  of  rich  men  and  women 
who  keep  threatening  to  have  their  lists  revised, — 
"  I  have  been  saying  to  my  secretary  for  some  time 
that  I  believe  we  had  better  go  over  that  list." 
After  a  recent  convert  to  revision  of  charity  lists 
and  to  budgeting  charity  lists  had  explained  what 
he  discovered  in  such  a  housecleaning,  another 
giver  in  the  party  summoned  up  courage  to  an- 
nounce that  he  was  giving  in  sums  of  $50  to  $250 
each  to  five  of  the  agencies  that  the  other  had  found 
it  necessary  to  discard. 

Time  and  time  again  I  have  heard  men  admit  that 
their  benevolences  in  sums  running  from  $10  to 
hundreds  or  thousands  represented  little  or  no  per- 
sonal preference  and  practically  no  definite  idea  of 
what  they  wish  to  have  done  for  their  communities 
or  in  their  names. 

Eventually  public  discussion  of  public  budgets, 
newspaper  discussion  of  the  breakdown  of  private 
charity,  and  the  flooding  of  the  rich  man  by  news- 
paper appeals,  would  doubtless,  unaided,  lead  a  con- 


THE  GIVER'S  BUDGET  379 

sidcrablc  number  of  large  givers  to  revise  their  lists 
frequently  and  to  make  an  effort  to  direct  their 
gifts  toward  work  that  would  not  be  done  except 
for  their  giving.  But  so  limited  are  the  means  of 
information  now  available  to  an  individual  giver, 
and  so  limited  his  time  for  learning  about  work-not- 
done  by  private  agencies  or  by  all  agencies  com- 
bined, that  efficient  giving  will  never  come  unless  the 
budget  of  municipal  needs-not-met  and  needs-now- 
adequately-met  is  placed  before  givers  by  some 
agency,  such  as  the  proposed  clearing  house,  that 
has  reviewed  the  whole  field. 

The  Budget  of  Needs  Adequately  Met 

Excuse  as  we  may  and  must  our  delay  in  pro- 
viding budgets  of  municipal  needs  not  yet  met,  how 
can  we  excuse  ourselves  for  not  listing  at  least  the 
needs  that  are  now  being  adequately  met?  These 
needs  are  more  numerous  than  it  is  comfortable  to 
believe.  There  is  many  a  cause  that  is  being  just 
as  truly  smothered  by  legacies  and  gifts  and  ener- 
vating attention  as  are  tenement  babies  by  the  in- 
terminable wrappings  of  the  bambino  or  by  winter 
underwear  in  June.  Which  agencies  are  thus  be- 
ing slowly  smothered  may  be  brought  to  light  only 
by  lists  of  needs  adequately  met.  Fortunately,  dis- 
closing such  lists  would  generally  lead  to  more  work 
rather  than  less  work,  and  would  rouse  agencies, 
public  and  private,  to  approximate  100%  of  their 
opportunity. 


Benefactions   Via  Tax  on   Inheritances,  Transfers 
and  Incomes 

A  New  York  lawyer  recently  told  me  of  two  cli- 
ents of  large  means  who  decided  against  any  public 
benefactions  in  their  wills  on  the  ground  that  their 
obligation  to  society  would  be  amply  discharged 
through  the  inheritance  tax  on  their  property. 
What  this  contribution  to  public  welfare  means  is 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  in  New  York  state  it 
yielded  over  $8,000,000  in  1911,  and  since  1866  has 
yielded  that  state  over  $100,000,000. 

If  the  inheritance  tax  is  supplemented  by  trans- 
fer tax  to  cover  large  gifts  and  transfers  before 
death,  and  by  an  income  tax,  the  public  will  soon 
take  in  these  taxes  what  it  considers  equitable.  It 
is  probable,  however,  that  inheritance,  transfer  and 
income  taxes  would  increase  rather  than  decrease 
public  bequests  for  the  following  reason:  Any 
movement  that  recognizes  income  and  inheritance  as 
fair  subjects  of  taxation  is  but  one  expression  of  a 
larger  movement  which  magnifies  public  welfare  at 
the  expense  of  private  property  and  individual  will. 
The  day  laborer,  middle  man,  school  teacher  help 
make  great  fortunes.  The  spirit  of  our  time  recog- 
nizes this  partnership. 

Because   money   is  purchasing  power  and  at  the 

same    time   power    to    compel    others    to    labor    and 

380 


BENEFACTIONS  VIA  TAXES  381 

power  to  restrict  others'  freedom,  the  passing  on  of 
huge  fortunes  from  father  to  son  or  from  donor  to 
beneficiary  is  not  a  private  affair  but  an  extremely 
important  public  affair.  Mr.  Harriman  repeatedly 
reminded  the  country  that  the  success  of  the  rail- 
roads of  which  he  was  director  depended  chiefly 
upon  the  farmers  and  laborers  whose  products  the 
railroads  carried.  Profit  sharing,  old  age  pensions, 
inheritance  tax,  transfer  tax,  income  tax,  all  belong 
to  the  new  point  of  view  which  maintains  the  sol- 
idarity and  interdependence  of  rich  and  poor,  and 
which  marks  poverty  for  abolition. 

The  more  we  recognize  these  facts  the  larger  will 
be  the  super-payments  of  rich  and  poor  alike  above 
tax  requirements.  The  more  we  must  give  the  more 
we  are  going  to  want  to  give. 

These  special  taxes,  graduated  and  inflicted  ac- 
cording to  power  to  pay  taxes,  are  part  of  a  stand- 
ardizing process  which  aims  to  bring  100%  of  the 
rich  up  to  a  minimum  standard  of  social  account- 
ability whether  they  want  to  give  or  not.  Thus 
these  special  taxes  have  the  same  merit  as  current 
taxes  for  education  and  health.  If  we  depended 
upon  private  gifts  to  support  education,  we  should 
have  about  the  same  disproportion  between  the  work 
that  ought  to  be  done  and  the  work  that  is  done 
which  we  have  when  we  compare  private  relief  funds 
with  the  demand  for  relief.  By  socializing  educa- 
tion,—  by  taxing  everybody  for  it  —  we  give  it  a 
fair  chance,     By   municipalizing   medicine   shall  we 


382  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

make  it  generally  available  and  useful.  By  pro- 
gressively taxing  capital  shall  we  inspire  both  those 
who  bequeath  and  those  who  inherit  with  zeal  for 
public  welfare,  for  giving  to  all  equal  opportunity 
to  be  efficient  and  to  share  in  efficiency's  rewards. 

New  York's  two  largest  inheritance  taxes  —  $1,- 
930,000  and  $1,077,000 —  probably  exceeded  the 
total  direct  taxes  paid  by  the  testators  during  their 
entire  lives.  To  help  work  out  and  enforce  equitable 
current  taxation  is  one  of  philanthropy's  greatest 
privileges  and  duties.  Better  no  philanthropy  than 
inequitable  taxation.  Better  no  philanthropy  than 
evasion  of  taxation  by  philanthropists.  Better  no 
colleges  and  no  churches  than  that  college  gradu- 
ates and  church  members  should  be  blinded  by  the 
munificence  of  a  handful  of  tax  evaders  to  evils  of 
inefficient  levy,  collection  and  expenditure  of  taxes. 
Swearing  off  taxes  is  a  more  dangerous  form  of 
transmissible  disease  than  typhoid  or  smallpox. 
Private  giving  to  be  efficient  must  be  a  supplement 
to  and  not  a  substitute  for  paying  one's  full  share 
of  taxes,  and  for  carrying  one's  full  share  of  the 
burden  and  joy  of  making  government  efficient  and 
representative. 

Dear  Sir : 

1  believe  in  improving  city  government  via  improving  its  business  methods,  and  am 
glad  to  be  reminded  of  needs  and  progress  as  a  background  for -the  "police  scandal." 

I  send  you  herewith  my  check  for „. „ dollars 

for  work  this  year  on  budget  analysis  and  publicity,  standardizing  salaries,  standardizing 
reports,  and  other  efficiency  work. 

Name _... „ _ _... 

Address „ , „_ 

Pate ^J. 


in 


ii 


From  photograph— Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine 


The  Men  of  the  TeWs 


Are  at  Work 


And  They  Need 


Your  Co-operation 


APPEALS   WITHOUT   WORDS 


Constant  Emphasis  Upon  Government  Agencies 

What's  the  use  of  giving  millions  for  education 
if  inefficient  public  officers,  by  wasting  millions,  cre- 
ate ignorance?  Why  gifts  for  scientific  research 
if  inefficient  government  prevents  the  application  of 
truth?  Why  hope  for  cleanliness  and  virtue  if  in- 
efficient government  tolerates  filth  and  rewards  vice? 
Whether  government  is  abetting  or  creating  or  cor- 
recting evils,  a  clearing  house  is  bound  to  reflect. 

Shall  Non-Political,  Non-Partisan  Work, 

Already  Well  Begun, 

For  Efficiency  in  National  Departments 

Be  Continued? 

Vast  sums  are  given  annually  to  endow  or  miti- 
gate by  retail  the  wholesale  results  of  government 
inefficiency.  To  a  degree  which  few  donors  realize, 
their  gifts  for  hospitals,  orphanages,  tuberculosis 
camps,  trade  schools  and  institutional  churches  are 
made  necessary,  and  at  the  same  time  made  rela- 
tively ineffective,  by  continuing  municipal  ineffi- 
ciency. 

Some  of  what  we  now  call  social  service  is  anti- 
social service;  much  of  it  is  personal,  not  social, 
service;  while  energies  costing  untold  millions  and 
untold  hours  are  wasted  because  the  possibilities  of 

383 


384  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

social  service  via  efficient  government  are  not  appre- 
ciated. 

No  agency  engaged  in  social  service  can  give  so 
much  happiness  or  remove  so  much  wretchedness  as 
can  efficient  government.  Inefficient  government,  on 
the  other  hand,  can  cause  more  evil,  sickness,  pau- 
perism and  wretchedness  than  any  other  anti-social 
factor,  and  more  in  one  year  than  pamphlets  on 
health,  hospitals  and  popular  lectures  can  offset  in 
a  generation.  Failure  to  enforce  health  laws  is  a 
more  serious  menace  to  health  and  morals  than 
drunkenness  and  tobacco  cancer. 

Private  social  service  is  most  productive  when  it 
creates  and  strengthens,  stimulates  and  directs  pub- 
lic social  service, —  when  it  aims  to  insure  efficient 
government  and  to  prevent  inefficient  government 
from  needlessly  burdening  the  philanthropist  and 
taxpayer  or  from  obstructing  education  and  re- 
ligion. 

Social  service  by  private  hospitals,  anti-tubercu- 
losis and  relief  societies  can  never  catch  up  with  the 
anti-social  service  of  a  municipal  government  which 
tolerates  an  inadequate  health  policy  or  inefficient 
health,  street  cleaning,  and  housing  administration. 
Private  interest  in  delinquent  children  will  never 
catch  up  with  the  anti-social  product  turned  out  by 
a  government  that  fails  to  provide  thorough  phys- 
ical examination  of  all  school  children,  private  and 
parochial  as  well  as  public,  and  an  efficient  truancy, 
juvenile  court  and  probation  system. 


EMPHASIZING  GOVERNMENT       385 

The  inefficient  administration  of  American  cities 
and  counties  is  every  year  doing  more  injury  to 
home,  character  and  industry  than  does  alcohol,  the 
social  evil  or  gambling.  Inefficient  government  is 
the  greater  evil  because,  whenever  it  knowingly  or 
unknowingly  fails  to  remove  the  causal  conditions, 
it  actually  produces  the  weaknesses  on  which  per- 
sonal and  social  evils  thrive.  Inefficient  government 
moves  with  the  momentum  of  100%  of  the  popula- 
tion, using  energies  and  signatures  of  rich  and 
poor,  weak  and  strong,  refined  and  vulgar  alike, 
while  social  evils  move  with  the  momentum  of  their 
victims  and  their  exploiters  only.  In  the  name  of 
all  citizens  the  schools  are  probably  injuring  the 
physical,  mental  and  moral  health  of  more  children 
every  year  than  private  philanthropies  are  reliev- 
ing in  a  generation.  The  distribution  of  taxes  in 
the  name  of  all  citizens  produces  more  inequalities 
of  character,  health  and  opportunity  in  a  year  than 
churches,  schools  and  philanthropies  altogether  will 
remove  in  a  decade,  unless  directly  related  to  gov- 
ernment agencies. 

The  malefactions  of  inefficient  government  and 
the  benefactions  of  efficient  government  can  be  ex- 
plained to  all  communities  when  social  workers  ac- 
quire the  habit  of  including  governmental  agencies 
in  their  definition  of  social  service,  and  general  com- 
munity needs  not  met  in  their  public  statements  of 
deficits  incurred  during  the  period  reported  on. 

The  term  "  social  service  "  is  at  present  monopo- 


386  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

lized  by  private  philanthropy  for  reasons  that  it  be- 
hooves social  workers  to  analyze: 

1.  Organized  for  a  class  in  distress,  private  chari- 

ties frequently  become  interested  in  a  small 
fraction  of  the  needy  ones  who  make  up  that 
class.  Few  agencies  will  work  for  their 
own  extinction.  Hence,  yesterday's  demon- 
stration becomes  tomorrow's  institution  fight- 
ing for  self  preservation 

2.  Social  service   groups  have  not  generally  ap- 

plied efficiency  tests  to  their  ideas  or  their 
methods.  Excluding  from  their  picture 
what  they  have  not  done  —  community  needs 
not  met,  children  not  helped,  needy  families 
not  relieved,  sickness  not  treated  —  they  ex- 
aggerate the  magnitude  and  social  benefits  of 
work  done.  Thus  children's  societies  have 
successfully  led  many  communities  to  over- 
look the  child  saving  work  of  public  schools. 

3.  The  evil  reputation  of  party  politics  has  led 

many  philanthropists  to  shun  in  work  and 
in  reading  that  which  is  connected  with  gov- 
ernment. When  we  want  legislation  or  pub- 
lic subsidy  we  claim  rights  as  citizens  and  ex- 
tol our  contribution  to  community  welfare. 
Duties  of  citizenship  we  shift  to  that  outside 
thing  which  we  call  "  government,"  while 
giving  lavishly,  as  philanthropists,  what  as 
taxpayers  we  refuse.  Our  aversion  to  gov- 
ernment social  service  is  largely  aesthetic, 
overcome  only  when  the  displeasure  of  deal- 
ing with  a  type  of  distress  outweighs  our 
dislike  of  politics,  as  in  the  case  of  the  in- 
sane, idiotic  and  criminal 

4.  Neither    private    nor    public    agencies     have 


WHY  GOVERNMENT  IS  SLIGHTED     387 

worked  out  a  plan  for  utilizing,  through 
government  social  service,  the  large  number 
of  men  and  women  who  now  serve  as  volun- 
teers  in  private  charities 

5.  Churches   and   schools   have  not   fully   realized 

that  to  be  thoroughly  moral  men  and  women 
requires  that  we  be  efficient  and  intelligent 
participators   in    government 

6.  So  obvious   is  the  advantage  of  wholesale  so- 

cial service  by  the  city  in  addition  to  retail 
social  service  by  private  agencies,  that  the 
chief  justification  of  a  large  part  of  modern 
social  service  is  that  private  philanthropy 
wants  to  make  a  demonstration  which  will 
show  some  next  step  for  government 

American  philanthropists  have  worked  away  from 
and  without  regard  to  government,  not  because  they 
prefer  to  help  3%  instead  of  100%,  but  partly  be- 
cause they  have  despaired  of  correcting  municipal 
inefficiency  and  partly  because  their  attention  has 
not  been  called  to  the  possibility  of  so  giving  their 
own  money  that  they  can  influence  public-spending. 

American  governments  are  spending  every  year 
over  two  billion  dollars.  No  charitable  society  ever 
existed,  none  should  ever  be  permitted,  that  could 
control  such  resources.  When  a  city  officer  de- 
scribes the  social  service  rendered  by  the  parks, 
schools,  water  bureau,  street  cleaners,  his  message 
goes  straight  to  the  inner  consciousness  of  everyone 
who  reads  his  statement.  When  public  officials  de- 
scribe social  needs  not  met  for  lack  of  funds  or  for 
lack  of  efficiency,  everyone,  listens,  heeds  and  experi- 


388  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

ences  a  desire  to  provide  the  funds  and  the  efficiency. 

Whether  government  activities  are  so  conducted 
that  they  manufacture  sickness,  crime  and  incompe- 
tency, can  be  learned  by  the  social  worker  group. 
The  energies  of  that  group,  properly  expended,  can 
harness  official  forces  to  uplift  work,  so  that  a  hos- 
pital's budget  shall  be  in  effect  all  the  hospital 
spends  plus  all  the  taxpayers  spend  through  the 
various  departments  for  promoting  health,  and  a 
social  settlement's  budget  is  all  it  has  to  spend  plus 
all  its  city  spends.  It  will  never  be  possible  for 
the  social  service  group  to  see  the  whole  of  its  own 
field  until  it  sees  what  government  is  not  doing  that 
it  might  do  with  the  funds  and  energies  already  used 
or  available. 

The  only  agency  whose  business  it  is  to  be  on  the 
constant  lookout  for  unequal  opportunity,  unneces- 
sary suffering,  preventable  and  curable  disease  is 
government,  because  it  is  the  only  agency  which  in 
a  city,  a  county,  a  state  or  the  nation,  represents 
100%  of  the  souls  within  its  bounds.  When  gov- 
ernment does  things  wrong,  the  effects  are  felt  by 
100%  of  us.  Millions  of  dollars  are  expended  an- 
nually in  the  United  States  by  private  philanthro- 
pists in  attempting  to  do,  on  a  very  small  scale, 
remedial  and  educational  work  which  government 
should  be  taught  to  do  by  wholesale.  To  equalize 
opportunity  for  education,  for  health,  for  earning 
power,  private  philanthropy  requires  the  active  and 
efficient  cooperation  of  government  itself. 


PART  IV 


A  Magna  Charta  for  Givers 

In  the  growth  of  representative  government  the 
formulation  of  a  Magna  Charta  has  often  served  a 
useful  purpose.  How  can  I  better  state  what  T 
consider  to  be  your  obligation  to  me  than  by  formu- 
lating what  I  consider  to  be  my  rights?  Con- 
versely, because  rights  always  impose  duties  the 
formulation  of  a  Magna  Charta  is  a  helpful  guide 
to  great  duties. 

Giving  can  never  be  efficient  until  a  Magna 
Charta  of  giving  is  accepted  by  both  givers  and  ap- 
pealers. Heretofore  we  have  thought  more  clearly 
of  givers'  duties  than  of  givers'  rights.  That  is 
one  reason  why  givers  themselves  have  not  thought 
more  consecutively  of  their  own  opportunities. 

Among  the  rights  of  those  who  give  time, 
thought,  money,  bounty  or  taxes  the  following 
should  be  recognized: 

The  right  to  give 
The  right  to  impose  conditions 
The  right  to  stop  giving 
The  right  to  refuse  to  give 

The  right  to  protection  against  importunity 

The  right  to  enjoy  giving 

The  right  to  give  where  one's  interest  is 

The  right  to  give  one's  self  with  one's  gift 

The  right  to  initiate 

391 


392  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

The  right  to  give  more  ways  than  one 
The  right  to  freedom    from    self    imposed    arbi- 
trary restrictions 
The  right  to  give  interest  without  giving  money 

The  right  to  information  before  giving 
The  right  to  alternatives  for  giving 
The  right  to  know  100%   about  alternatives 
The  right  to  question 

The  right  to  give  without  hurting 

The  right  to  protection   against   disappointment 

when  giving 
The  right  to  avoid  gambling  when  giving 
The  right  to  one's  money's  worth  of  result  for 

one's  self  and  one's  beneficiaries 

The  right  to  reports  of  results 

The  right  to  reports  of  work  not  done  separated 
from  work  done 

The  right  to  know  the  world's  experience  in  giv- 
ing ^ 

The  right  to  expert,  unprejudiced  counsel 

The  right  to  a  public  informed  about  giving 

The  right  to  give  secretly  or  anonymously 

The  right  to  protection     against     indiscriminate 

•praise 
The  right  to  be  dealt  with  sincerely' 

The  right  to     clearing    houses     of    information 

about  needs,  appeals  and  gifts 
The  right  to  grow  in  understanding 
The  right  to  know  the  relation  of  each  benefac- 
tion to  government 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        898 

Does  this  seem  too  complicated?  Please  don't 
say  yes  until  you  have  tried  it  on  yourself.  If  each 
right  seems  of  itself  indispensable,  I  have  not  enu- 
merated too  many.  Multiplicity  and  differentia- 
tion of  rights  is  the  essence  of  progress. 

The  rich  man  has  the  right  to  enjoy  art,  but  he 
schools  himself  beyond  enjoying  the  art  of  chromos 
and  comic  supplements.  He  has  the  right  to  enjoy 
food,  but  he  schools  himself  to  like  what  is  best  for 
his  system.  With  all  the  pleasures  in  the  world  to 
choose  from,  he  schools  himself  to  like  what  agrees 
with  him  and  with  society. 

Heretofore  the  absence  of  critical  discussion  of 
giving  has  prevented  rich  men  and  women  from 
schooling  themselves  in  givers'  rights,  and  has  pre- 
vented society  from  attempting  to  school  givers 
progressively.  I  believe  that  the  above  analysis  of 
the  givers'  points  of  view  will  help  givers,  prospec- 
tive givers  and  public  alike  to  recognize  and  demand 
efficient  giving. 

The  right  to  give  is  challenged  by  few.  Yet  it 
is  qualified  by  the  injunction  —  So  use  your  own 
property  that  you  shall  not  injure  your  neighbor 
in  the  enjoyment  of  his  property. 

The  right  to  impose  conditions  is  denied  by 
orthodox  philanthropy  in  theory,  but  seldom  in 
practice.  There  is  danger  of  injury  from  exercis- 
ing this  right  in  direct  proportion  to  the  giver's 
failure  to  exercise  other  rights  here  listed. 

The  right  to  stop  giving  is  conceded  by  few  re- 


394  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

cipients.  Once  a  donor  always  a  donor  is  the  a  b  c 
of  charitable  appealing.  When  a  statesman  men- 
tioned the  "  hardest  thing  in  public  life  "  to  Am- 
bassador Choate,  he  asked,  "  Have  you  ever  tried  to 
stop  giving  to  ?"  Givers  who  are  not  per- 
mitted to  stop  giving  are  poor  assets  for  any  cause 
and  may  easily  hurt  more  than  they  help. 

The  right  to  refuse  to  give  is  not  recognized 
by  the  majority.  Rich  men  and  women  are  no 
longer  excused  from  giving  simply  because  they 
learn  too  late  in  life,  do  not  know  how  to  give  wisely, 
or  believe  they  give  best  when  they  manage  effi- 
ciently their  capital  and  income. 

To  a  degree  which  we  shall  never  know,  gifts  are 
now  made  against  the  judgment  of  givers,  who  are 
unwilling  to  seem  stingy,  mean  or  unsocial.  "  All 
appealing  (at  college)  was  on  the  moral  obligation 
basis.  Even  when  asked  to  pay  your  pledge  you 
felt  it  was  a  favor  to  the  girl  collecting  it." 

The  most  flagrant  violator  of  the  right  to  refuse 
to  give  is  the  social  or  parlor  meeting  where  a  num- 
ber of  rich  persons  are  brought  together  under  con- 
ditions which  render  it  socially  impossible  to  leave 
the  room  without  giving  and  giving,  too,  according 
to  others'  measure  rather  than  one's  own.  It  is 
called  "  locking  the  door."  So  much  has  this 
method  of  raising  money  been  used  that  cards  now 
frequently  read  "  No  appeals."  On  three  different 
occasions  hosts  for  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Re- 
search have  made  it  a  condition  that  there  should 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        395 

be  no  talk  of  money.  On  one  critical  occasion  when 
the  guests  themselves  wanted  to  raise  money,  and 
came  back  for  the  fifth  time  to  the  subject  of  a  five 
year  guarantee  of  $100,000  a  year,  an  officer  of  the 
Bureau  asserted  the  right  of  others  to  withhold  by 
refusing  to  have  money  further  discussed  at  a  so- 
cial meeting  which  he  had  brought  about. 

The  right  to  protection  against  importunity 
is  inherent  in  "  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness." Men  and  women  ought  to  be  able  to  ac- 
cept invitations  and  to  talk  to  people  freely  without 
fearing  that  they  will  be  asked  for  money.  It  is  a 
dreadful  state  of  mind  in  which  men  and  women  of 
wealth,  or  men  and  women  of  known  generosity, 
come  to  public  places,  or  shake  hands  with  men 
whom  they  want  to  have  as  friends. 

Some  method  must  be  worked  out  by  which  peo- 
ple will  not  be  continually  importuned  either  by  vis- 
itors or  by  friends  or  by  mail.  The  federated  ap- 
peals, mentioned  on  page  300,  and  the  clearing 
house,  discussed  in  Part  III,  are  planned  to  relieve 
this  importunity  and  would  be  far  better  methods  of 
avoiding  it  than  schooling  men  and  women  to  close 
their  minds  and  hearts  to  all  appeals  because  they 
cannot  bear  the  burden  of  continuous  importunity. 

The  right  to  enjoy  giving  is  seriously  jeopard- 
ized by  the  present  chaotic  and  conflicting  appeals 
and  by  the  lack  of  consecutive  cumulative  informa- 
tion which  proves  that  one's  giving  is  worth  while. 

The  right  to  give  where  one's  interest  is,  i.e., 


396  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

the  right  to  give  one's  self  with  one's  gift  is  not 
incompatible  with  giving  wisely.  Most  givers  still 
—  and  will  always  —  derive  pleasure  in  direct  pro- 
portion as  they  give  from  the  heart.  They  insist 
upon  expressing  sentiment.  Giving  must  be  differ- 
ent from  ordinary  work  or  people  will  stop  giving. 
As  one  giver  wrote  in  protest  against  efficiency  tests 
for  giving,  "  There  is  something  in  life  besides 
measuring  everything  by  the  rule  of  the  almighty 
dollar, —  as  has  been  said  once  or  twice  before  by 
various  people  —  and  although  I  am  in  for  practical 
charity  and  want  my  money's  worth,  sentiment  al- 
ways enters  into  everything  I  do  more  or  less." 

It  is  limitation  in  the  appealer,  not  in  the  giver 
or  in  sentiment,  that  made  this  writer  believe  he 
could  express  sentiment,  better  by  spending  $500,- 
000  on  one  small  plot  of  ground  where  not  more 
than  80  persons  can  be  helped  at  one  time,  than  by 
using  the  same  amount  of  money  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  for  the  benefit  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  persons  in  the  category  he  particularly 
wanted  to  help. 

It  is  mistaken  identity  which  leads  many  givers 
to  believe  that  putting  money  into  a  monument  of 
stone  or  brick  is  of  itself,  as  one  donor  has  said, 
"  putting  my  light  on  a  hill."  Not  every  building 
site  is  a  hill ;  not  every  building  is  a  light ;  nor  does 
every  light  illuminate  the  path  of  progress.  On 
the  contrary  many  building  sites  are  holes,  not  hills. 
Many  building  endowments  do  not  cast  their  light 


Lowed  by  Mmic  School  Settlement,  New  York  City 

APPEALS  WITHOUT  WORDS 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        397 

beyond  their  own  windows,  while  the  light  from  oth- 
ers often  serves  to  mislead  by  giving  a  false  impres- 
sion of  service  and  safety.  Fortunately  there  is 
nothing  about  sentiment  that  makes  it  less  enjoy- 
able when  spent  efficiently.  Heart  plus  head  gives 
a  deeper,  more  glowing  sentiment  than  heart  alone. 

Unwilling  gifts  will  hurt  any  cause.  Gifts  are 
unwilling  unless  they  go  where  interest  is  and  take 
the  giver  with  them.  I  once  surprised  a  man  by  ex- 
pressing my  surprise  when  he  said,  "  I  am  sorry  but 
I  have  made  up  my  charity  list  this  year."  I  asked 
him  how  he  happened  to  say  that  to  me.  He  said 
he  supposed  that  was  what  I  had  come  for.  I  re- 
minded him  that  he  had  asked  me  to  come  to  see 
him  to  tell  him  about  municipal  research  and  that 
if,  when  I  finished,  he  could  help  giving  money,  we 
did  not  want  it.  He  could  not  help  giving  $1,000 
that  day,  and  with  the  facts  before  him  he  has  been 
good  enough  to  help  raise  some  $50,000  for  the 
Bureau. 

Another  man  sent  a  check  for  $100  which  I  re- 
turned with  the  statement  that  the  information 
which  we  had  sent  him  was  not  intended  as  an  ap- 
peal. He  wrote  rather  testily  that  when  we  were 
ready  to  accept  small  sums  we  might  write  him. 
This  was  when  he  knew  nothing  of  the  work,  and 
was  annoyed  by  a  statement  which  he  did  not  take 
the  time  to  read.  It  was  easier  for  him  to  send 
$100.  Later,  when  he  learned  of  the  work,  he  gave 
several  thousand  dollars   a  year  for  several  years. 


398  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

There  is  very  little  sentiment  put  into  gifts  by 
persons  who  do  not  cherish  these  rights.  At  first 
blush  it  does  not  seem  as  if  they  are  in  jeopardy, 
when  every  person  known  to  give  at  all  is  impor- 
tuned to  give  hundreds  of  things.  Surprisingly 
few  important  movements,  large  or  small,  initiate 
with  the  men  and  women  who  give  the  money,  al- 
though they  have,  as  a  rule,  notice  of  needs  and  op- 
portunities long  before  organizations  set  out  to  se- 
cure their  money. 

The  right  to  initiate,  the  right  to  give  more 
ways  than  one,  and  the  right  to  freedom  from 
self  imposed  arbitrary  restrictions:  To  a  man 
who  once  expressed  interest  in  a  certain  new  work 
but  was  unable  to  give  because  he  never  gives  to 
an  agency  already  receiving  general  contributions 
from  him,  I  proposed  a  "  holding "  company  as 
follows :  "  If  you  will  put  up  the  money  I  will  put 
up  the  energy  from  my  own  overtime  to  get  the  or- 
ganization started  and  to  insure  getting  the  work 
done,  and  I  believe  I  can  give  a  bond  to  guarantee 
making  good." 

So  far  as  limiting  the  number  of  gifts  represents 
an  attempt  to  conserve  the  donor's  individuality  and 
not  to  reopen  questions  settled  early  in  the  year,  it 
represents  a  social  saving.  But  when  self  imposed 
restrictions  limit  initiative,  as  they  do,  and  narrow 
a  man's  interest,  as  they  do,  they  become  a  means 
of  closing  a  donor's  eyes  and  ears  and  mind  to  new 
facts. 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        399 

But  it  not  infrequently  happens  that  persons 
whose  first  giving  is  prompted  by  some  sentimental 
or  personal  interest  are  gradually  edged  into  a  po- 
sition similar  to  that  of  young  men  and  women  in 
the  country  where  inviting  a  girl  to  a  sociable  is 
notice  to  all  other  "  fellows  "  that  they  must  keep 
away.  It  is  very  good  for  the  monopolizer,  if  he 
wants  the  monopoly,  but  it  is  pretty  hard  on  the 
girl.  A  "  steady  "  giver  is  at  quite  as  great  a  dis- 
advantage as  the  "  steady  "  girl  or  beau.  Every 
giver  has  the  right  to  a  diversified  diet  in  his  enjoy- 
ments from  giving.  Also,  he  has  the  duty  to  sam- 
ple various  forms  of  giving.  Nothing  is  more  ob- 
structive of  progress  than  the  cold,  self  restrictive 
statement  from  a  man  when  he  is  offered  a  new  op- 
portunity to  invest  in  new  happiness, —  "  I  give  all 

I    can    afford    to    give    to    hospital."     Why 

should  a  giver  tie  his  hands  and  limit  the  expres- 
sion of  his  interest? 

The  right  to  give  interest  without  giving 
money  was  suggested  to  me  by  an  efficient  woman 
giver  and  worker  whose  ability  to  see  needs  and  to 
organize  remedies  exceeds  her  ability  to  give 
money.  She  says,  "  A  well-to-do  person  is  not  now 
able  to  ask  another  well-to-do  person  for  a  con- 
tribution unless  willing  to  return  in  kind.  It  makes 
no  difference  that  I  am  already  giving  a  little  to  20 
causes  and  large  sums  to  five  causes,  while  a  rich 
neighbor  is  giving  to  none.  She  expects  me  to  give 
as  much  as  she  does  for  any  cause  which  I  present 


400  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

to  her."  A  generous  friend  of  the  Bureau  once 
said,  "  It  would  be  easier  for  me  to  give  $20,000 
than  to  raise  it.  When  I  ask  these  men  for  con- 
tributions I  am  also  inviting  them  to  ask  me  for 
contributions  which  will  total  or  exceed  their  com- 
bined gifts." 

The  right  to  information  before  giving,  the 
right  to  alternatives  and  to  know  100%  about 
alternatives,  and  the  right  to  question:  These 
rights  are  not  taken  seriously  as  yet  by  the  great 
majority  of  givers.  Yet  to  have  it  known  that  any 
large  giver  or  that  large  givers  as  a  class  prefer 
to  deal  with  100%  of  each  problem  through  100% 
of  a  community  would  cause  all  who  read  and  think 
of  their  giving  to  look  for  100%  opportunities. 

Givers  frequently  do  not  want  what  would  be 
considered  the  essential  facts.  When  asked  for  an 
opinion  as  to  appealing  agencies  I  used  to  feel  the 
necessity  of  making  a  complete  statement  as  to  what 
field  the  agency  was  in ;  how  big  the  field  was ;  what 
fraction  of  the  field  it  covered,  and  how  effectively, 
judged  from  information  in  my  possession  and  sum- 
marized for  questioners.  To  my  chagrin  I  learned 
that  my  questioners  did  not  want  information  before 
giving,  but  merely  wanted  me  to  say  whether  or  not 
I  thought  they  should  give  $5,  $50  or  $500.  In 
other  words,  they  wanted  me  to  make  up  their 
minds,  which  is  the  beginning  of  demoralization  and 
"  playing  favorites  "  on  the  part  of  any  persons 
consulted. 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        401 

The  three  most  serviceable  questions  are:  What 
is  100%  of  your  field?  What  percent  are  you  cov- 
ering?    What  percent  is  nobody  covering? 

The  cure  for  narrowness  is  alternatives.  This 
cure  conies  in  appeals  and  in  newspaper  statements. 
If  the  right  cure  does  not  come  in  these  ways  the 
giver  should  look  for  alternatives. 

Opportunities  for  service  are  so  numerous  that 
they  should  be  pressed  upon  rich  and  poor  alike  so 
that  people  will  never  give  without  being  sorry 
that  they  had  not  money  enough  to  give  to  one  or 
five  or  10  other  opportunities  claiming  their  atten- 
tion. The  first  23  appeals  to  Mrs.  Harriman  for 
tuberculous  individuals  called  for  $9,675, —  too  lit- 
tle to  cure  these  23  patients,  but  enough  if  spent 
through  the  National  Association  for  the  Prevention 
of  Tuberculosis  to  persuade  the  states  where  these 
patients  live  to  spend  not  merely  $9,675  but  all 
that  would  be  necessary  and  all  that  could  be  wisely 
spent,  to  stamp  out  the  white  plague  within  those 
states.  Those  who  give  without  missing  it  are  sure 
to  "  miss  it  "  in  their  giving. 

If  the  public  is  told  that  a  few  loan  shark  victims 
are  rescued  by  rich  givers,  loan  sharks  themselves 
will  see  to  it  that  other  victims  appeal  to  Lord  Boun- 
tiful. If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  gift  is  made  to  wipe 
out  the  loan  shark  business,  victims  will  help  swell 
the  tide  of  public  sentiment  for  wiping  out  legal 
protection  of  extortion.  Likewise,  the  money 
needed  to  save  25  farms  about  to  be  lost  for  tem- 


402  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

porary  lack  of  financial  accommodation  will  inter- 
est the  banks  and  business  men  of  a  whole  state  in 
providing  money  at  legitimate  rates  wherever  needed 
and  wherever  security  justifies. 

The  proper  attitude  of  social  workers  toward  the 
rich,  and  a  full  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part 
of  the  rich,  will  never  come  until  churches  and  col- 
leges and  organized  charity  stop  competing  with  in- 
dividuals in  seeking  gifts  that  the  rich  "  will  never 
miss."  Bounty  and  tips  continue  in  amounts  that 
are  never  missed,  where  if  we  who  appeal  should 
once  adopt  a  different  attitude  givers  would  delib- 
erately set  about  solving  fundamental  problems. 
Having  once  seen  in  the  individual  appeal  an  op- 
portunity for  a  city  or  a  state  to  enlarge  its  plan 
and  improve  its  machinery  for  uplift  work,  it  is  im- 
possible for  any  donor  to  give  without  missing,  no 
matter  how  small  the  sum. 

The  right  to  give  without  hurting  is  self  evi- 
dent and  presumes  the  right  to  protection 
against  disappointment  when  giving.  Giving  to 
benevolent  causes  can  easily  do  more  harm  than  sa- 
loons or  corrupt  political  bosses.  As  President 
Pritchett  wrote,  "  The  chance  of  doing  harm  (to 
education)  is  much  greater  than  the  chance  of  do- 
ing good  unless  the  giver  knows."  To  describe  the 
results  of  inefficient  giving  the  word  maleficiary  is 
needed.  An  astonishingly  large  percentage  of  giv- 
ing goes  to  maleficiaries  when  intended  for  ben- 
eficiaries.    The    chief    victim    of    misdirected    giv- 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        4o:$ 

ing,  the  main  maleficiary,  will  always  be  the  public. 

These  rights  impose  the  duty  to  try  to  find  out. 
whether  one's  gifts  hurt  when  they  are  intended  to 
help.  No  one  wants  to  hurt.  Apart  from  innu- 
merable ways  in  which  gifts  are  known  to  hurt  their 
intended  individual  beneficiaries,  gifts  may  easily 
hurt  large  numbers  beside  the  intended  beneficiaries 
by  making  it  harder  for  the  world  to  do  its  work, 
by  making  it  harder  for  other  up-lift  agencies  to 
get  an  audience,  by  misleading  other  givers,  by  cre- 
ating problems. 

For  example,  in  1911  the  New  York  Milk  Com- 
mittee, as  already  cited,  included  in  its  budget  for 
milk  stations  $82,000  for  milk  relief.  It  finally 
dropped  this  item  from  its  budget  because  existing 
relief  agencies  undertook  to  give  the  necessary  re- 
lief. Had  some  one  person  or  10,000  persons  given 
the  Milk  Committee  $82,000  for  injecting  a  new  re- 
lief agency  into  the  New  York  situation,  it  would 
have  hurt  where  donors  intended  to  help.  This  cer- 
tain effect  was  pointed  out  by  both  Mrs.  Harriman 
and  Mr.  Rockefeller. 

An  appeal  came  to  Mrs.  Harriman  for  starting 
an  orphan  asylum  and  college  combined.  There  is 
no  way  in  which  an  orphan  asylum  and  college  can 
be  combined  without  hurting  everybody  involved. 

In  another  instance,  Mrs.  Harriman  gave  some 
money  to  make  possible  an  important  scientific 
work.  She  was  shortly  beset  to  increase  the 
amount   tenfold.     She   looked   over   the   plant   per- 


404  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

• 

sonally,  and  said  to  the  executive  in  charge,  "  Ap- 
parently you  are  already  swamped  with  business. 
You  have  not  yet  in  control  your  present  modest 
equipment.  To  give  you  more  money  now,  before 
you  have  mastered  your  present  equipment,  would 
divert  your  attention  from  the  scientific  work  in 
which  you  are  interested,  to  administrative  work  in 
which  you  are  not  interested  and  in  which  you  are 
apparently  not  easily  efficient.  Your  usefulness 
would  be  restricted  by  increasing  your  responsibili- 
ties at  this  time." 

The  right  to  give  without  gambling:  To  give 
without  thinking  and  to  give  without  knowledge 
means  certain  hurting  of  beneficiary  or  of  society, 
and  is  just  as  much  gambling  as  is  investment  with- 
out knowledge  and  without  thought.  Get-happy- 
quick  schemes  are  just  as  much  gambling  as  get- 
rich-quick  schemes. 

Once  I  was  called  by  telephone  to  an  urgency 
meeting  which  came  at  a  time  most  inconvenient  for 
me  but  in  a  way  which  made  it  impossible  for  me 
to  decline  the  assistance  that  it  was  alleged  I  was 
able  to  give.  It  developed  that  a  certain  person 
had  given  $10,000  to  the  man  who  summoned  me  on 
the  latter's  statement  that  he  wanted  to  apply  to 
a  certain  nation  wide  problem  the  methods  of  mu- 
nicipal research.  Now  that  they  had  the  money 
they  wanted  me  to  tell  them  what  in  the  world  they 
had  meant, —  how  they  could  apply  the  method  of 
municipal    research    to    their    particular    problem. 


MAGNA  CHARTA  FOR  GIVERS        405 

Monte  Carlo  knows  no  wager  that  has  more  the  es- 
sence of  gambling  than  this  gift  of  $10,000. 

In  another  case  I  was  asked  to  consult  with  a 
group  that  wanted  to  raise  $63,000  for  a  splendid 
cause.  I  asked  them  how  they  reached  that  figure, 
i.e.,  what  they  proposed  to  do.  They  said  that  was 
what  they  wanted  to  ask  me  about.  They  were  able 
to  show  how  they  needed  $19,000,  but  they  hadn't 
the  slightest  idea  why  they  needed  the  other  $44,- 
000.  They  were  gambling,  and  so  would  be  any 
rich  man  who  would  give  them  $63,000. 

The  right  to  one's  money's  worth  of  result 
for  one's  self  and  one's  beneficiaries  is  as  nat- 
ural as  the  right  to  one's  money's  worth  in  purchas- 
ing railroad  tickets  or  gas,  to  full  weights  and 
measures,  pure  drugs,  pure  foods,  and  to  protection 
against  wild  cat  banking. 

The  right  to  reports  of  results  and  the  right 
to  reports  of  work  not  done  separated  from 
work  done:  With  relatively  few  exceptions  agen- 
cies receiving  funds  have  begun  now  to  try  to  re- 
port convincing  evidence  that  money  spent  by  them 
has  been  well  spent.  These  reports  are  much 
clearer  and  specific  for  small  current  gifts  which 
come  in  from  a  large  number  of  contributors  than 
for  large  current  gifts  from  a  few  friends  or  for 
endowments,  building  funds,  etc.  The  reporting  to 
current  small  subscribers  is  due  partly  to,  that  grow- 
ing sense  of  responsibility  for  rendering  business- 
like statements  comparable  to  statements  from  "  in- 


406  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

dustrials,"  and  also  largely  to  that  "gratitude 
which  is  a  lively  sense  of  favors  to  come." 

Reports  are  also,  as  a  rule,  appeals  for  support. 
Naturally  they  aim  to  justify  the  giving.  With 
negligible  exceptions,  however,  reports  to  current 
subscribers  fail  to  picture  work  that  was  not  done 
satisfactorily,  or  that  vast  part  of  the  same  field 
which  the  agency  has  not  attempted  to  cover.  With 
fewer  exceptions  are  large  givers  and  donors  of 
bequests  told  just  what  has  happened  by  means  of 
their  bequests.  For  example,  I  have  in  mind  an 
agency  that  secured  several  bequests  or  memorial 
funds  on  the  understanding  that  they  should  be  used 
for  certain  specific  purposes.  When  the  funds  were 
secured,  the  agency  had  in  mind  not  only  meeting 
the  sentimental  requirements  of  the  donors,  but  ad- 
vertising to  other  possible  donors  the  advantage  of 
establishing  memorials  which  should  be  alive  and 
adapted  to  each  year's  needs.  The  original  idea 
was  that  before  spending  this  money  a  number  of 
alternatives  should  be  passed  before  the  agency  and 
it  would  choose  that  particular  alternative  which 
best  fitted  the  spirit  of  the  donor.  What  actually 
happened  was,  that  at  the  end  of  the  season,  after 
the  money  had  been  spent,  the  year's  work  done 
when  the  time  for  the  annual  report  returned,  the 
reporters  picked  out  of  expenditures  already  in- 
curred enough  money  to  account  for  these  various 
memorial  funds. 

The  whole  history  of  giving  would  have  been  dif- 


RIGHT  TO  REPORTS  407 

ferent  had  donors  been  informed  six  months  after 
and  a  year  after  and  four  years  after  as  to  the  re- 
sults of  their  giving. 

Few  exposures  of  public  business  would  be  more 
uncomfortable  and  astounding  than  would  be  the 
publication  of  the  facts  about  the  use  made  by 
public  charitable  and  religious  agencies  of  large 
gifts  and  bequests  and  of  gifts  in  answer  to  "  spe- 
cial appeals."  That  this  is  true  should  make  all  of 
us  somewhat  more  indulgent  in  judging  the  defects 
of  government.  Colleges  have  used  trust  funds 
without  regard  to  restrictions  imposed  by  the  do- 
nors. Charitable  agencies  given  money  to  help  Mrs. 
A.  have  diverted  it  to  help  Mrs.  B.  There  once 
came  before  me  a  recommendation  from  Agency  A 
that  "  inasmuch  as  the  ABC  family  is  now  being 
helped  by  Agency  B,  please  transfer  $44.50  remain- 
ing to  the  credit  of  that  family  in  our  specified 
funds  to  the  GH  and  LM  families."  I  endorsed 
this  slip  with  the  following  sentiment :  "  Inasmuch 
as  the  public  has  contributed  $44.50  to  support  the 
ABC  family,  will  Agency  A  consider  taking  over 
responsibility  for  this  family  and  spending  the 
money  on  it?"  Later,  as  indicated  on  page  201, 
a  system  of  accounting  was  introduced  which  kept 
by  itself  the  fund  given  for  each  family,  and  new 
donors  are  now  advised  that  a  surplus  exists  and 
asked  whether  they  wish  it  returned  or  devoted  to 
other  families. 

The  right  to  know  the  world's  experience  in 


408  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

giving:  In  building  a  house,  starting  a  hospital, 
promoting  a  railroad  or  planning  an  advertising 
campaign,  it  is  expected  that  each  man  shall  start 
where  the  world  leaves  off  the  day  before  he  starts. 
Technical  journals,  training  schools,  professional 
traditions  are  provided  that  we  may  use  the  world's 
experience  to  date  in  guiding  business  practice. 
The  minister  has  what  purports  to  be  a  digest  of 
the  world's  experience  to  guide  him  in  his  sermons 
and  in  his  parish  work.  The  relief  visitor  has  the 
world's  experience  to  date  in  administering  relief. 
The  college  president  knows  the  world's  experience 
in  raising  money  and  in  drawing  syllabuses,  even 
though  there  is  a  blur  when  he  tries  to  learn  college 
experience  in  spending  money  and  in  training  men. 

Thus  far  the  giver,  even  though  prepared  to 
spend  half  his  fortune  on  learning  the  world's  ex- 
perience in  giving,  must  fail.  We  have  not  yet  an- 
alyzed and  recorded  that  experience  in  a  way  to 
provide  a  ready  guide.  As  soon  as  the  analysis  ex- 
ists and  is  made  easily  available  we  may  hold  givers 
responsible  for  studying  that  experience  either  by 
themselves  or  through  a  representative.  The  Char- 
ity Organization  Society  of  New  York  has  in  its 
bureau  of  advice  and  information  the  nearest  exist- 
ing approach  to  a  cumulative  index  to  such  experi- 
ence, but  it  is  rudimentary  and  not  yet  militant. 

The  right  to  expert,  unprejudiced  counsel: 
In  no  other  field,  not  even  matrimony  itself,  is  it  so 
difficult  to  secure  either  expert  counsel  or  unpreju- 


RIGHT  TO  EXPERT  COUNSEL        409 

diced  counsel  as  in  the  field  of  giving.     The  reason 

is  simple.  The  people  who  know  also  want.  Tlu  v 
want  money.  They  want  their  consultant's  money. 
There  is  almost  no  one  to  whom  a  giver  may  turn, 
whose  advice  would  be  worth  anything  to  him,  who 
has  not  one  or  more  special  interests.  This  is  not 
because  the  adviser  wants  to  take  advantage  of  the 
giver,  but  because  the  adviser's  knowledge  is  limited 
to  his  own  experience  and  observation  which  he  can- 
not easily  broaden  by  reference  to  handbooks, 
guides,  and  impersonal  experts,  such  as  should  be 
provided  for  givers. 

Recently  a  very  rich  man  asked  a  dozen  men  for 
suggestions  about  giving  away  $10,000,000.  He 
received  a  dozen  answers.  He  was  very  much  pro- 
voked because  one  answer  had  been  written  without 
enough  thought.  I  have  wondered  whether  he  could 
have  helped  giving  away  $10,000,000  had  he  turned 
not  to  men  without  a  program,  but  to  men  each  ob- 
sessed with  a  program  for  meeting  some  national 
need.  No  great  man  would  think  of  asking  any  one 
of  twelve  dinner  companions  chosen  from  bankers, 
railroad  presidents,  college  presidents,  etc,  to  en- 
tertain an  audience  by  a  song  or  by  a  violin  solo. 
The  time  will  come  when  he  will  not  think  of  asking 
for  advice  about  giving  from  men  whose  experience 
does  not  furnish  them  information  and  expert  judg- 
ment about  giving.  That  time  will,  of  course,  fol- 
low the  existence  of  analyzed  information  and  cen- 
tral agencies  to  "  broker  "  advice  about  giving,  as 


410  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

Wall  Street  brokers  advise  about  other  investments, 
and  as  municipal  reference  libraries  give  officials  and 
public  the  world's  experience  as  to  paving  contracts, 
garbage  disposal  or  railway  franchises.  If  given  a 
choice  tomorrow  between  a  hundred  million  dollar 
foundation  or  a  guarantee  that  a  hundred  persons 
closest  to  the  ten  richest  men  and  women  in  the  coun- 
try would  be  informed  with  respect  to  public  giving, 
I  should  choose  the  latter  alternative.  Just  as  art- 
ists sing  up  to  their  critics,  as  editors  write  up  to 
their  audiences,  so  donors  give  up  to  the  expecta- 
tion and  information  of  those  surrounding  them. 
So  do  they  also  give  down  to  their  surroundings. 

The  right  to  a  public  informed  about  giving: 
Mr.  Rockefeller  has  experienced  with  respect  to  his 
program  for  a  great  national  foundation  some  of 
the  penalties  of  trying  to  work  with  and  for  an  un- 
trained public.  He  announced  his  intention  to  es- 
tablish a  greater  philanthropic  foundation  than  the 
world  had  ever  hoped  for,  and  he  is  now  astonished 
by  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  grant  a  charter.  The 
organ  of  expert  discussion  of  such  matters,  The 
Survey,  openly  attacked  the  charter  on  several 
grounds  that  should  have  been  made  obsolete  a  gener- 
ation ago  by  Mr.  Rockefeller's  own  giving.  More- 
over, the  announcement  itself  took  the  public  mind 
so  little  into  account  that  it  emphasized  the  public's 
future  obligation  to  Mr.  Rockefeller  and  its  per- 
petual dependence  upon  him  in  times  of  emergency 
when  it  should  have  emphasized  the  public's  unpar- 


RIGHT  TO  INFORMED  PUBLIC       411 

ftUeled  opportunity  to  furtlicr  its  own  interest  by  co- 
operation  with   Mr.  Rockefeller. 

While  the  object  of  this  foundation  commends  it- 
self to  practically  every  mind,  six  tenths  of  several 
hundred  editorial  notices  examined  by  me  were  crit- 
ical either  of  the  purpose  or  the  venture  or  both, — 
in  marked  contrast  with  the  comment  of  a  few  years 
earlier  upon  the  three  Rockefeller  foundations  for 
southern  education,  medical  research  and  eradica- 
tion of  hookworm. 

Holding  a  mirror  up  to  givers  is  essential  to  their 
efficiency.  At  present  the  only  part  of  the  rich 
man's  life  which  he  never  hears  frankly  discussed  is 
his  giving.  While  the  fundamental  explanation  is 
that  there  is  no  systematic  way  of  informing  the 
public  as  to  results,  in  fact,  no  recognized  standard 
for  testing  results,  there  are  three  other  simple  ex- 
planations: (1)  naturally  the  agencies  receiving 
the  money  will  not  care  to  criticise;  (2)  rival  agen- 
cies cannot  afford  to  criticise  because  they  hope  to 
get  the  next  gift  or  the  same  kind  of  gift  from  the 
same  kind  of  man ;  (3)  editors  consider  it  uncalled 
for  to  criticise  giving  or  are  still  under  the  spell  of 
folk  sayings  like  "  Speak  well  of  the  dead  "  and 
"  Do  not  look  a  gift  horse  in  the  mouth,"  or  they 
themselves  do  not  know  the  difference  between  effi- 
cient and  inefficient  giving.  Informing  the  public 
under  these  circumstances  may  easily  give  offense 
without  giving  information.  The  one  organ  de- 
voted exclusively  to  informing  the  public  about  so- 


412  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

cial  work  departed  from  its  practice  of  silence  with 
respect  to  defects  of  giving  in  the  case  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Foundation,  but  with  that  exception  has 
printed  literary  reports  of  giving  or  has  been  silent. 
No  one  having  information,  the  giver  is  denied  his 
right  to  an  informed  public. 

The  right  to  give  secretly  or  anonymously 
must  be  conceded  subject  only  to  its  being  compati- 
ble with  other  essential  rights.  Secrecy  and  ano- 
nymity are  prompted  often  by  modesty  and  often  by 
fear  of  importunity.  The  chief  weakness  of  secrecy 
is  that  it  seldom  works.  What  person  is  more  pro- 
voking of  pity  than  he  or  she  whose  secret  giving  is 
notorious?  Another  defect  is  that  it  is  harder  for 
anonymous  giving  to  be  efficient, —  partly  because  it 
too  often  precludes  the  investigation  necessary  to 
efficient  giving  and  to  adequate  testing  of  results, 
partly  because  it  deprives  the  donor  of  the  coopera- 
tion from  the  public  which  is  usually  essential  to 
straight  thinking,  restricts  his  opportunities  for  new 
information,  and  prevents  the  exercise  of  several  of 
his  rights.  The  harm  done  by  seeming  to  refuse 
to  do  one's  share  will,  as  a  rule,  offset  any  benefits 
of  bona  fide  secret  and  anonymous  giving;  excep- 
tions almost  always  relate  to  the  donor's  name 
rather  than  to  the  fact  of  the  gift.  If  donors' 
names  are  withheld  on  the  ground  that  their  publica- 
tion would  jeopardize  a  movement,  the  public  has  a 
right  either  to  refuse  such  money  or  to  be  Convinced 
that  its  prejudice  is  unfounded  or  unintelligent. 


PUBLICITY  OF  GIFTS  EDUCATES     413 

The  Russell  Sage  Foundation's  defense  of  secrecy 
I  have  publicly  criticised  on  the  ground  that  com- 
munities have  a  right  to  know  who  and  how  much 
money  and  conviction  are  back  of  every  public  move- 
ment. Yet  while  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research 
has  never  ooncealed  donors'  names  or  amounts  given, 
it  has  failed  to  publish  many  important  facts  where 
it  felt  that  better  service  would  be  rendered  by  not 
wittingly  or  unwittingly  subtracting  from  credit 
given  to  cooperating  public  officials  or  cooperating 
private  agencies  for  constructive  work  suggested, 
supervised  or  even  done  for  departments  by  the  Bu- 
reau.    Is  this  position  consistent? 

Exceptional  circumstances  warrant  anonymous 
gifts  to  institutions  and  to  individuals  in  cases  such 
as  the  following:  A  gentleman  came  to  me  one  day 
and  said  that  it  was  a  great  pity  that  we  could  not 
retain  the  personal  satisfaction  of  giving  directly, 
while  at  the  same  time  holding  to  the  advantages  of 
giving  scientifically.  He  referred  particularly  to 
"  gentlefolk  "  and  others  who  were  unwilling  to  re- 
ceive presents  even  from  their  intimate  friends,  but 
who  would  often  be  tided  over  a  shoal  by  a  gift  of 
money  from  an  unknown  source.  He  asked  me  to 
prepare  a  list  of  people,  and  that  year  at  Christmas 
time  sent  $1,600  in  gold,  in  amounts  running  from 
$10  to  $150,  for  individuals,  including  a  tenement 
house  girl  who  wished  to  become  a  teacher  and 
needed  tuition  free,  three  aged  sisters  of  known  re- 
finement who  had  not  for  years  been  able  to  indulge 


414  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

themselves  in  the  slightest  luxury  or  in  comforts  be- 
yond actual  necessities,  etc.  Unless  those  who  are 
able  to  do  this  sort  of  thing  arrange  among  them- 
selves to  get  information  on  a  larger  and  more  re- 
liable scale  than  has  yet  been  possible,  not  one  man 
in  100  who  would  like  to  do  it  will  find  the  means 
of  doing  it  satisfactorily. 

The  right  to  protection  against  indiscrimi- 
nate praise  is  perhaps  the  most  fundamental  right 
of  all.  Givers  have  a  right  to  learn  from  their  own 
mistakes.  They  have  a  right  to  sincere  judgment. 
The  only  instance  I  know  where  the  public  in  any 
general  way  criticised  a  large  gift  was  when  editori- 
als criticised  Mr.  Rockefeller's  proposed  foundation 
as  originally  submitted  to  Congress.  Here  and 
there  ill  tempered  people  and  now  and  then  a  frank 
editor  will  suggest  that  money  might  have  been 
given  to  better  ends.  But  99  out  of  100  givers  are 
given  in  return  only  indiscriminate  praise.  Thus 
men  have  been  allowed  to  give  for  25  years,  and  to 
die  in  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  the  individuals  to 
whom  they  gave  and  the  public  with  whom  they  lived 
had  questions  or  even  contempt  for  their  giving. 

Is  it  kind  to  praise  a  woman  for  public  spirit  who 
spends  $2,500  on  her  own  dress  for  a  benevolent  en- 
tertainment, or  a  man  who  gives  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  to  institutions  disqualified  by  facts 
presented  by  his  own  experts,  or  the  trustees  who 
place  a  convalescent  home  next  a  famous  insane  asy- 
lum on  land  at  $2,500  per  acre,  or  the  administra- 


DISCRIMINATING  PRAISE  415 

tors  of  a  child  welfare  exhibit  who  knew  they  were 
wasting  money  at  a  rate  to  majte  Tammany  Hall 
blush,  or  experts  able  to  have  prevented  all  such 
miscarriages  of  philanthropy  but  who  did  not  feel 
free  to  criticise? 

Discriminate  praise  means  discriminating  disap- 
proval equally  outspoken.  Discriminate  praise  and 
discriminate  disapproval  can  never  be  expected  from 
agencies  which  are  competing  for  the  attention  and 
interest  of  donors.  In  their  own  defense,  as  well  as 
in  the  defense  of  beneficiaries,  givers  owe  it  to  them- 
selves to  establish  standards  and  organs  ^of  criticism 
and  an  atmosphere  which  permits  criticism.  At  the 
time  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  was^arinounced  I 
suggested  that  one  good  use  of  part  of  the  founda- 
tion would  be  to  endow  an  organ  of  criticism  and  de- 
scription which  should,  for  ever  and  ever,  tell  the 
truth  about  the  use  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation 
in  particular, —  its  refusals  as  well  as  its  gifts  — 
and  the  use  of  other  foundations  and  gifts. 

The  right  to  be  dealt  with  sincerely :  So  long 
as  there  are  both  people  with  much  money  and  other 
people  needing  that  money,  there  will  be  insincerity 
on  both  sides  in  dealing  with  one  another.  Those 
with  money  will  pretend  to  an  interest  in  uplift  work 
which  either  does  not  exist  or  is  transitory  and  su- 
perficial. Those  needing  money  will  affect  admira- 
tion and  deference  which  they  do  not  feel.  That  the 
giver  has  the  right  to  be  dealt  with  sincerely,  how- 
ever,  cannot  be   doubted.     Nor   can   it  be  doubted 


416  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

that  at  present  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  the 
giver  is  wheedled,  flattered,  humored,  misled,  and 
only  too  often  despised,  for  his  lack  of  discernment. 
It  is  considered  not  only  proper  but  humane  and 
reputable  to  pass  resolutions  of  appreciation  and 
regret  when  a  woman  director  of  a  board  is  deposed 
for  taking  commissions  on  supplies  or  a  hospital  su- 
perintendent is  dismissed  for  embezzlement  or  gross 
incompetency.  Why  jeopardize  a  good  cause  by 
advertising  a  sad  and  discreditable  fact? 

The  only  "100%  list  "  that  we  are  almost  cer- 
tain to  find  in  the  councils  of  uplift  and  educational 
work  is  a  list  of  the  foibles,  pictures,  weaknesses 
and  vanities  of  "  hoped-for-givers."  It  is  alto- 
gether natural,  but  because  it  is  natural,  it  is  worth 
while  for  givers  themselves  to  bring  about  such 
changes  in  conditions  as  will  minimize  this  insincer- 
ity. This  is  all  the  more  important  because  those 
methods  which  are  used  successfully  by  appealers 
in  dealing  with  donors  happen  also  to  be  the  meth- 
ods by  which  the  public  is  wheedled,  cajoled  and  mis- 
led by  parties  and  politicians,  by  get-rich-quick-men, 
by  insincere  journalism  and  by  innumerable  propa- 
gandas. 

Answering  appeals  should  be  the  last  act  of  an 
intelligent  mind  and  not  the  last  step  in  a  game  of 
"  catch  as  catch  can,"  "  hare  and  hounds,"  "  pigs 
in  clover  "  or  "  spider  and  the  fly."  As  long  as 
successful  appealing  is  regarded  as  a  matter  of 
catch   phrases    to    strike   the   fancy   or    probe    the 


RIGHT  TO  SINCERITY  417 

weakness  of  prospective  givers,  clerks  and  officers 
who  help  prepare  appeals  and  letters  will  continue 
to  be  insincere  with  givers.  Thus  far  large  givers 
have  used  more  intelligent  and  more  sincere  methods 
than  have  people  appealing  to  them.  The  pro- 
\ tibial  "Pittsburg  millionaire"  has  lived  nearer  to 
his  light  than  the  "  Pittsburg  minister "  or  the 
"  Pittsburg   social  worker." 

If  it  is  not  true  that  people  get  the  kind  of  gov- 
ernment they  want,  it  is  true  that  leading  philan- 
thropists get  the  kind  of  social  worker  they  want. 
At  any  rate,  the  social  worker  is  more  often  a  prod- 
uct of  his  environment  than  a  corrector,  and  if  the 
rich  man  and  rich  woman  do  not  want  sycophantic, 
insincere,  inconsistent,  shuffling  service  by  the  men 
and  women  in  the  field,  they  must  equip  themselves 
to  ask  the  questions  and  apply  the  tests  that  will 
discriminate  between  the  man  who  "  makes  good " 
and  the  man  who  "  talks  good." 

The  road  of  practical  philanthropy  is  strewn 
with  the  wrecks  of  good  resolutions,  one  may  almost 
say  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  by  those  who  have 
been  unequal  to  the  struggle  toward  straight  think- 
ing and  straight  acting  in  connection  with  those  who 
give  money. 

It  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to  tell  a  prospective 
donor  that  his  impulse  is  pointed  in  the  wrong  di- 
rection. When  I  went  to  the  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor  I  found  that  a 
large  number  of  families  were  being  helped  by  the 


418  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

organization  against  the  judgment  of  every  person 
dispensing  the  funds.  Moreover  it  was  a  rule  of 
the  office  that  when  certain  influential  persons  re- 
ported a  case  supposedly  for  investigation,  the  office 
would  find  it  necessary  to  give  material  relief  and 
give  it  liberally.  I  could  make  no  headway  in  get- 
ting an  independent  point  of  view  until  I  convinced 
those  in  important  positions  that  it  was  discourte- 
ous, unfair  and  disloyal  to  our  donors  to  assume 
that  they  wished  us  to  use  other  people's  money 
given  to  us  as  trustees,  unwisely  or  for  the  injury 
of  any  poor  family. 

It  is  one  of  the  depressing  experiences  of  social 
work  to  note  the  rapid  disintegration  that  takes 
place  in  many  of  us  who  are  put  in  this  relation  to 
rich  people.  Men  and  women  intended  by  nature 
and  by  twenty  years  of  training  to  be  illustrations 
of  steadfastness,  consistency,  courage  and  original- 
ity acquire  with  discouraging  facility  the  attitude 

of   "  Yes,   Mr.   ,   No,   Mr.   — — ,  Yes,   indeed, 

Mr.  ." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  man  who  does  not  pawn 
his  individuality  when  he  takes  such  a  position  is  al- 
most certain  to  incur  the  displeasure  and  even  the 
personal  dislike  of  donors  or  trustees.  In  fact, 
with  boards  constituted  as  they  have  been  in  the 
past,  getting  into  hot  water  with  one  or  more  of 
the  trustees  is  almost  a  sine  qua  non  to  success.  It 
is  obvious  that  within  institutions,  as  within  fami- 
lies, there  must  be  peace.     Nominally  at  least  trus- 


RIGHT  TO  SINCERE  DEALING       419 

tees  are  more  important  than  paid  workers.  Or- 
ganically the  trustee  must  be  considered  first.  It 
must  be  assumed  that  as  between  a  board  and  an 
executive  officer  the  board  is  right  until  the  board  is 
changed ;  but  it  need  not  be  considered  that  a  minor- 
ity on  a  board  is  always  right.  In  few  boards  will 
the  majority  require  insincerity  toward  trustees  or 
donors  if  an  effort  is  made  to  present  the  truth. 

The  right  to  clearing  houses  of  information 
about  needs,  appeals  and  gifts:  None  of  the 
rights  above  enumerated  can  be  guaranteed  without 
establishing  clearing  houses  where  facts  and  judg- 
ments will  be  given  impersonally  without  fear,  favor 
or  prejudice. 

A  private  secretary  is  not  a  clearing  house.  No 
one's  memory  is  a  clearing  house.  There  can  be  no 
such  things  as  impersonal  facts  and  impersonal  judg- 
ment where  there  is  not  detailed,  analyzed  record  of 
others'  giving  to  which  a  donor  can  send  appeals  in 
full  knowledge  that  their  merit  can  be  discovered, 
and  from  which  donors  can  secure  lists  of  needs  at 
home  and  abroad  which  promise  legitimate  returns. 
There  is  as  much  difference  between  current  methods 
of  giving  and  of  getting  facts  and  judgments  about 
giving,  and  the  proper  methods,  as  there  is  between 
the  stock  exchange  and  a  bucket  shop,  or  between 
the  manipulated  endorsements  of  Get-Rich-Quick 
Wallingford  and  a  clearing  house  certificate.  Here 
it  should  be  remembered  that  the  clearing  house 
principle  enables  one  check  for  $100  to  pay  $1,000,- 


420  MODERN  PHILANTHROPY 

000  of  obligation.  So  it  will  frequently  happen 
that  one  bit  of  information  or  one  request  in  a  clear- 
ing house  for  givers  will  answer  1,000  questions  or 
meet  1,000  needs. 

The  right  to  grow  in  understanding:  As  a 
child  has  the  right  to  grow  into  manhood  in  his 
duties  and  in  his  thought,  so  the  donor  has  a  right 
to  grow  because  of  his  giving.  It  is  little  less  than 
a  tragedy  to  see  men  and  women  giving  millions  at 
the  age  of  seventy  from  the  simple,  shallow  motives 
that  prompted  them  at  the  age  of  thirty  or  forty. 
There  is  something  radically  wrong  and  anti-social 
in  the  relation  between  the  appealer  and  the  donor, 
between  church  and  supporter,  between  hospital  and 
contributor,  if  "  blinders  "  are  put  on  the  eyes  and 
minds  of  grown  up  men  and  women.  Growth  in  un- 
derstanding will  be  promoted  by  the  proposed  clear- 
ing house,  which  will  constantly  emphasize  things 
not  done  at  all,  things  not  done  efficiently,  needs  not 
met,  and  lines  of  activity  which  are  most  productive. 

The  right  to  know  the  relation  of  each  bene- 
faction to  government:  Philanthropy  cannot 
succeed  by  trying  to  supplant  government.  It  can- 
not succeed  without  supplementing  government. 
When  it  fails  to  supplement  it  confuses,  hampers, 
injures,  cripples.  Wherever  American  philanthropy 
works  without  reference  to  American  government 
men  and  women  philanthropists  will  be  found  with- 
holding taxes  in  larger  amounts  than  their  philan- 
thropic gifts,  and  consciously  or  unconsciously  ex- 


PERFECT  PHILANTHROPY  421 

ploiting  government  and  the  public  for  the  good 
either  of  other  philanthropies  or  of  themselves. 
Philanthropy  will  never  come  into  its  own  until  it 
has  broadened  to  mean  not  mere  love  of  man  in  the 
abstract,  but  love  of  organized  man,  love  of  gov- 
ernment that  should  aim,  as  Mrs.  Harriman  said 
when  founding  the  Training  School  for  Public  Serv- 
ice, "  to  give  every  one  an  opportunity  to  become 
efficient." 


THE   END 


INDEX 


INDEX 


100% 

100%,  of  preventable  sick- 
ness cared  for,  48;  car- 
ing for  consumptives, 
71 ;  discover  and  aim  at, 
78,  81,  86,  92,  93; 
school  problems,  118; 
health  protection  for  ba- 
bies, 162;  motives  for 
giving,  164;  school 
needs,  231;  contribu- 
tions listed,  301 ;  needs 
pictured  by  appeals, 
323;    of   each   man    ap- 


philanthropy,  371 ;  used 
by  socialism,  371 ;  needs 
undiscovered,  371 ;  mu- 
nicipal needs  in  budget 
estimates,  373;  possibili- 
ties, charity  budget, 
377;  opportunity  of 
agencies,  379 ;  social 
accountability  of  rich, 
381;  of  public  and  in- 
efficient government, 
385;  people  affected  by 
government's  mistakes, 
388;  your  field,  401; 
weaknesses  pictured,  416 


pealed   to   and   of   com- 
munity,   323;    cue,    344,  A 
400 ;      as      background, 

345;  interest,  346;  of  a  Academy  of  Medicine,  96 

movement's       attraction,  Advertising      appeals,      to 

346;     philanthropy     ac-  teach    a.b.c.    of    health, 


complished,  348 ;  pic- 
tures, 348;  relief,  oppor- 
tunity, 348;  easier  than 
fraction,  349 ;  obvious 
needs  advertised,  349 ; 
pictures  of  children's 
needs,  361 ;  list  of  mu- 
nicipal needs,  370 ;  needs 
shown  by  Chicago  Child 
Welfare  exhibit,  370; 
which  should  be  met  by 
government     or    private 

425 


51,  75;  reiteration  in, 
151;  appealing  via,  167, 
316;  needs  and  alterna- 
tives listed,  290;  educa- 
tional value,  291,  336, 
337;  cost,  319;  sincerity 
encouraged,  321;  ethics 
and  profits,  333;  public 
understanding,  336 ;  of 
special  cases,  332,  343; 
for  babies,  337;  does  not 
encourage        pauperism, 


426 


INDEX 


338 ;  access  to  rich,  338 ; 
systematizing,  340 ;  out 
of  town,  341. 

Agencies,    suggestions    to, 
23;  methods  used  in  ap- 
pealing, 40,   131;  ruses 
101;     offer     credentials 
113;    mendicancy,    181 
"Ransom's  Folly,"  185 
conditioning   gifts,   195 
humanizing,      263 ;      en- 
dowing, 264-267 ;  helped 
by  clearing   house,   285, 
322,     328 ;     information 
concerning,  299;  compe- 
tition among,  302 ;  dupli- 
cated,    316;     indirection 
in    appealing,    358;    use 
of   volunteers    in   public 
service,    386 ;    criticized 
by  other  agencies,  411 

American  Association  for 
the  Improvement  of  La- 
bor Legislation,  71 

Anti-Cigarette  League,  71 

Anti-Tuberculosis  League, 
71 

Appealing,  timely,  38,  39; 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  41 ;  educa- 
tional opportunity,  58, 
167;  why,  97;  ruses  and 
insincerities,  98 ;  by 
cranks,  105;  methods  of 
approach,  110,  113;  by 
college  presidents  and 
charitable  agencies,  113; 
workmanship,  1 30-1 34 ; 
cost,  142;  systematic, 
142;  reason  for,  152;  no 


imposition,  153;  efficien- 
cy, 156;  that  deserves 
answers,  157-160;  aims 
at  motives,  163,  165- 
166;  to  100%  of  mo- 
tives, 164;  via  sympathy, 
165;  for  eradication  of 
causes,  166-167;  "din- 
ner charm "  method, 
170;  via  interview,  173; 
accident  of  personal 
equation,  173,  174;  suc- 
cessful, 174,  258;  com- 
petitive, 182,  328;  pro- 
fessional, 182;  help  from 
clearing  house,  217, 
282;  inefficient,  245; 
teaches  citizenship,  258; 
effect,  258;  standard- 
ized, 263,  285,  322,  323, 
327 ;  endless  chain 
method,  312;  indirect, 
314;  card  index  of 
names,  317;  public  scru- 
tiny of,  321;  expense 
justified,  325;  defects, 
327 ;  effective  state- 
ments, 329;  to  100%  of 
receiver's  interest,  346; 
trouble  with,  368;  giver 
not  represented,  369 ; 
importunate,  395 ;  limi- 
tations, 396;  over  em- 
phasis on  phrases,  416; 
see  Agencies,  Interview- 
ing, Clearing  house 
Appeals,  writers  of  6000 
letters  reviewed,  5,  9; 
localities  represented,  9; 


INDEX  427 

acknowledgments,       20-       bling    in,   405;   see   Re- 
26;    amounts    requested,       ports 
86;       similarities,       38;  Arden  House,  206 
schools  and  colleges,  41-   Atlantic  Monthly,  203 
48;  homes  and  asylums, 
51;      soci.il      and      civic  B 

agencies,  53;  clubs  and 

associations,   53;   W.   C.   Baby  saving,  75,  274;  cam- 
T.  U.,  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  54;        paign    for,    51;    health 
churches,   56-63;   memo-       protection,  162;  in  spite 
rials  suggested,  68;  op-       of  weather,  199;  through 
portunities  afforded,  71,       pure  milk,  200,  201 ;  10,- 
156;   from  cranks,   105;        000    via    milk    stations, 
closing     phrases,      121;        836;    through    paid    ad- 
definite     vs.     indefinite,       vertising,  337 
122-129;  from  hospitals,  Baltimore,  30 
126;       technique       and   Benefactions,  laws  of ,  1 50 ; 
workmanship,  130,  134;       discussion,  160;  private, 
flaunt    array    of    names,        228 ;  see  Giving,  Taxes 
136;    from    mendicants,   Beneficiaries,    problems    to 
139;    right    to    answer,       be  faced  by,  190;  some- 
157;    Mr.    Rockefeller's       times  maleficiaries,   148, 
attitude     toward,     216;        402;  societies  paralyzed 
6000         requests         vii,       by  public  money,  314 
3-9,    245 ;     for    private   "  Begging  letters,"  see  Ap- 
benevolence,     258;      re-       pealing 
sponses,  258;  uses,  280;   Berlin,  229 
obligations  of  receivers,   Big    Brothers'    Movement, 
280 ;  index  of  needs,  283,        54 
285,  301 ;  constructively   Bok,  Edward  W.,  243 
criticised      by     clearing  Boston,  use  of  Franklin's 
house,   287;  joint,   303;       bequest,  256 
in  person,  311;  via  enter-   Boulder,  Colo.,  20 
tainments,  315;  informa-   Boy  Scouts,  54 
tion  an  asset,  324;  value   Brisbane,  Arthur,  243 
of  reiteration,  324,  335 ;   Bruere,  Miss  Minna,  299 
educational    value,    325,  Budget,     municipal,     197; 
326;  classified,  326;  one       protest  against  segrega- 
page   fetish,   330;   gam-       tion    of,     197;    exhibit, 


428 


INDEX 


362;  100%  list  of  mu- 
nicipal needs,  370;  to  be 
met  by  public  philan- 
thropy, 371;  to  be  met 
by  private  philanthropy, 
374;  charitable  agency's, 
376 ;  giver's  own  charity, 
377 ;  of  needs  adequately 
met,  379 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Re- 
search, 12,  23,  117,  363, 
374,  394,  413 


California  4,  116,  341 

Camp  Fire  Girls,  54 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  10,  33, 
34,  194,  223,  245 

Carnegie  Foundation  for 
the  Advancement  of 
Teaching,  198,  236,  296, 
329 

Carnegie  Institution,  236 

Caroline  Rest  Endowment, 
248 

Causes  of  diseases,  poverty, 
and  crime,  treatment  of, 
273 

Charitable,  meaning  of. 
307 

Charities  and  the  Com- 
mons, 213 

Charity,  see  Giving,  Phi- 
lanthropy 

Charity  Organization  Soci- 
ety, 206,  408 

Chicago,  19,  122,  303,  364 


Chicago  Vice  Commission, 
78 

Child  Welfare  Committee, 
361, 363 

Children  write  few  ap- 
peals, 34 

Children's  Aid  Society, 
New  York,  206 

Child  Labor  Committee,  71 

Childs  Restaurant  idea, 
87 

China,  54 

Choate,  Ambassador,  306 

Churches,  appeals  from, 
40;  methods  of  appeal- 
ing, 56;  extravagant  de- 
sires, 58;  mendicancy  of 
appeals,  59;  nation  wide 
opportunities,  61;  bish- 
ops on  appealing,  62; 
waste  among,  62;  sup- 
port of  public  schools, 
62;  clergymen  on  ap- 
pealing, 66 

Citizenship,  see  Colleges 
and  Schools 

Church  and  Society,  62 

Clearing  house  for  givers 
and  appealers,  x;  to 
follow  up  appeals,  20, 
285;  method,  26;  for 
community  needs,  77 ; 
by  whom  needed,  78, 
210,  281;  central,  81; 
described,  271-281;  ef- 
ficiency tests  by,  279; 
where  situated,  290;  lo- 
cal, 291 ;  five  year  test, 
292 ;  cost  of,  292 ;  labor- 


INDEX 


429 


atory  instruction  in  phi- 
lanthropy, 294;  organi- 
zation, 295;  previous 
trsts,  295 ;  plan  of  Cleve- 
land Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, 301;  objections, 
805 ;  classify  appeals, 
326;  mass  needs,  345; 
protect  donor  from  indi- 
rection, 359;  emphasis 
on  inefficiency,  needs  not 
met,  and  productive  ac- 
tivity, 420 

Cleveland,  evening  schools, 
18,  169;  cooperation  of 
private  philanthropies, 
169;  consolidated  ap- 
peal, 301 

Coffin,  Charles  A.,  290 

Colleges,  appeals,  41,  48, 
125;  indefinite  appeals, 
127,  136;  conditional 
gifts,  193;  snobbishness, 
227;  instruction  in  gov- 
ernment, 74,  229;  meth- 
ods standardized,  296 ; 
indirect  appeals,  358; 
misuse  of  trust  funds, 
407 

Commercial  clubs,  169 

Community,  relation  to 
charity,  259 ;  conscious 
efficiency  in,  272;  rights 
enforced  by  clearing 
house,  352;  efforts  to  re- 
move evil,  361 

Conditional  gifts,  see  Giv- 
ing 

Cooper  Union,  79 


Cooperative      giving,      see 

Giving 
County     Medical     Society, 

206 
Cranks,  see  Appeals 
Cutting,  R.  Fulton,  62 


1) 


Dakotas,  5,  18,  289 
Dickens,  Charles,  22 
Difficult  Art  of  Giving,  212 
Dix,  Dorothy,  243 
Duluth,    169 


Edinburgh,  239 

Edison,  Thomas  A.,  34,  87 

Education,  through  ap- 
peals 167,  291,  336-7; 
socialized,  381 ;  see  Ap- 
peals 

Efficiency,  in  public  busi- 
ness, 87;  in  giving  and 
will  making,  169;  in 
trusteeship,  178;  see 
Giving 

Efficient  Citizenship  Bulle- 
tins, 232 

Ellston,  S.  D.,  18 

Endorsement  of  charities, 
300 

Endowment,  dream  of 
184;  need,  184;  danger, 
184;  rules  for,  186;  con- 
ditional, 189;  alternat- 
ing, 250;  20  year  annu- 
ity plan,  251 ;  of  activity, 
service      and      program, 


430 


INDEX 


265;  of  men,  264,  266; 
of   men  via   institutions, 
265 
Europe,  4 


Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  243 

Follow-up,  methods  used 
by  hospitals,  75 ;  work 
for  defective  children, 
76 ;  correspondence 

through  clearing  house, 
284 

Florida,  31,  40 

Franklin's,  Benjamin,  will, 
252 


G 


Girard  College,  189 

Galsworthy's  Justice,  81 

Gaynor,  Mayor,  364 

G.  A.  R.,  54 

Garden,  Mary,  4 

General  Education  Board, 
33,232,296,351 

Georgia,  229 

Germany,  28,  238 

Givers,  vii,  viii;  poor 
men  as,  161 ;  information 
for,  173,  400,  407;  few 
take  initiative  in  seeking 
facts,  175,  342;  misedu- 
cated,  176;  should  seek 
personal  interview,  176; 
rights  of,  246,  391-421 ; 
clearing       house        for, 


287;  alternatives  listed 
for,  223,  248,  268,  369; 
who  are,  306 ;  methods  of 
reaching,  311 ;  just  share 
from  each,  '350;  access 
to,  354;  via  secretary, 
355;  via  family,  356;  via 
professional  man,  356 ; 
via  news  item,  358;  ap- 
proached directly,  358; 
spider  web  spun  for, 
359;  road  map  for,  367; 
budget  for,  370,  377; 
mirror  held  up  to,  411; 
learn  from  mistakes, 
414;  see  Magna  Charta 
Giving,  princely,  147;  busi- 
ness laws  of,  148,  150; 
advertised,  152;  seven 
motives  for,  162,  168, 
213;  efficient,  164,  169, 
173,  263,  267;  vagrant, 
168,  171-172;  personal 
relation  in,  173,  264; 
conditional,  190,  199, 
201 ;  appeals  stimulated 
by  conditional,  193,  194; 
unreasonable  conditions, 
194;  irresponsible  un- 
conditional, 196;  irre- 
sponsible, 196;  Carnegie 
Foundation's,  196,  198; 
from  unthinking  donor, 
198;  conditionally  to  in- 
stitutions, 198;  uncondi- 
tional hampers,  200 ; 
suggestive  brief  for  con- 
ditional, 202 ;  unre- 
stricted    legacies,     203 ; 


INDEX 


431 


capital  restricted,  inter- 
est unrestricted,  204;  re- 
stricted legacies,  204 ; 
trust  plan,  206;  difficult 
art,  209;  buys  annoy- 
ance, 210;  constructive 
program,  210;  Mr. 
Rockefeller's  greatest 
gift,  211;  obligations, 
212;  cooperative,  212, 
215,  295;  opportunities, 
217,  228;  petitioners' 
philosophy,  223 ;  news- 
paper symposium,  225 ; 
subsidized  miseducation, 
227 ;  without  wasting, 
228;  some  evils,  228, 
403;  testing  needs,  234; 
for  schools,  234;  syste- 
matic education  in,  247; 
conditional  upon  annual 
accounting,  248 ;  re- 
stricted to  20  years,  248 ; 
need  for  expert,  249, 
368;  to  public  treas- 
uries, 256;  uncondition- 
al, 257;  manner,  263;  to 
back  ideas  and  programs, 
267;  for  personal  whim 
or  community  needs, 
289;  scientific  study, 
290;  through  philanthro- 
py and  taxes,  294;  pub- 
lic, scientific  manage- 
ment of,  360;  private, 
efficient,  382,  391 ;  joy 
of,  396;  unwilling,  397; 
sentiment  in,  398;  with- 
out missing,  401 ;   with- 


out hurting,  402;  results 
from,  405;  secret,  412; 
anonymous,  418;  current 
methods  vs.  proper  meth- 
ods, 419;  see  En- 
dowment, Trust  funds 
Glasgow,  239 
Gliick,  Alma,  4 
Gough,  John  B.,  185 
Government  agencies,  14, 
383 ;  responsibility,  26 ; 
instruction  in  manage- 
ment of,  74,  229,  290; 
making  efficient,  77;  effi- 
cient business  methods 
in,  87;  inefficient,  227, 
383,  385;  needs,  269; 
needs  not  met,  292;  phi- 
lanthropy discredited, 
350;  efforts  to  remove 
community  evils,  361 ; 
duty  to  education,  372; 
relation  to  philanthropy, 
373,  385,  420;  two  bil- 
lion spent  annually, 
387;  relation  to  disease, 
388;  equal  human  op- 
portunity, 388;  kind  the 
people  want,  417 

H 

Harland,   Marion,   84 
Harriman,  Mrs.,  3,  9,   10, 
11,   12,    14,   81,   96,  97, 
189,  2G6,  358,  421 
Harriman,  Mr.,  IS,  96,  97, 
99,  246,  381 


432  INDEX 

Hartley,  Robert  M.,  308  L 
Health,  in  schools,  19;  ap- 
peals, 31,  32;  work  for,  Legacies,  see  Wills,  Gifts 
48;   nation   wide   oppor-  Lincoln,  Abraham,  45,  160 
tunities  for,  49,  50,  75,  Loans,       $5,000,000       re- 
76,     82,     83,     85,     93;  quested,    28;    for    those 
taught     through     news-  able  to  advance,  46,  73, 
papers,    51,    337;    trust  79,     85,     89;     extortion 
fund,  205  through,      85 ;     working 
Holman  Association,  50  capital,  86;  for  farmers, 
Hospitals,      see     Appeals,  88,   160;  mobilized,   88; 
Health  discrepancies     in     rates, 
Hotels,         for         working  92;    provident,    206;    in 
women,  see  Women  Franklin  will,  255 

Loan  sharks,  284,  401 
Local   agencies   and   clear- 

I  ing   house,    19,    77,    78, 
283,  291 

Infant  mortality,  see  Baby  London  Times,  333 

saving                             ,  Lorimer,    George    Horace, 

Influence,  conscious  vs.  un-  243 

conscious,       268,       272,  Los  Angeles,  30 

274;    used   to   make   or-  Lowell,     Mrs.      Josephine 

ganized  society  efficient,  Shaw,  274 
269 

Interviews,  personal,  limits  M 
and   dangers,    115,    116, 

172,  312;  as  method  of  Magna  Charta  for  givers, 

appeal,  175;  not  always  249,  391-421 

an  audience,  175;  sought  Mailing    lists,     141,     167, 

by  giver,  176  318 

Ireland,  90  Maine,  341 

Mark  Twain,  315 
Massachusetts,  257 

K  McGuinness,    Rev.   J.    H., 
63 

Kelly,  Mrs.  Florence,  273  Mendicancy,      139;      soul, 

Kennedy,  John  S.,  251  179;    analyzation,    180; 

Kentucky,  36,  4>3  elimination,   180;  of  in- 


INDEX  443 

dividuals   and  organiza-  Natl  ^Congress  of  Jewish 

tions,    180,    181;    inaidl-  Charities,  251 

ous,    182;   science,    182;  Nat'l   Consumers'    Leagm-, 

three  reasons,   182;  tab-  71 

leans  vivants,  183  Nat'l    Education    Associa- 

Mex'  tion,  238,  243 

Milk    stations,    see    Baby  Nat'l  Civic  Federation,  71 

saving  Nat'l    Mothers'    Congress, 

Missouri,    |  71 

Mitehel,  John  Purroy,  273  Nat'l     Municipal    League, 

Montana,  4  71 

Motives,  see  Giving  Nat'l  question  and  answer 

Moving     pictures,     educa-  bureau,  290 

tional,  70,  169;  sanitary  Nat'l  Superintendents'  As- 

censorship,  75  sociation,  238 

Municipal     bulletin,  257  Nation  wide  needs,  met  by 

Municipal      budgets,      see  government,    26;   educa- 

Budgets  tional,  46;   disclosed  by 

Municipal      research,      for  appeals    (eight  classes), 

education,  164;  support,  70-87;      attacked,      71; 

186;  growth,  348  compelled         to        seek 

Municipal      budgets,      see  wealth,  183;  community, 

Needs  206,    370;    indicated   by 

individual  appeals,  283, 
285;  listed  and  pub- 
lished by  clearing  house, 

N  298;    pictured,   304;   in- 
formation       concerning, 

Nat'l    Assn.    for    the    Ad-  see  Taxes,  Topics 

vancement     of     Colored  Needs  met,  see  Budget 

People,  71  Needs,    not-yet-met,     301, 

Nat'l  Assn.  for  Prevention  305;   related  to  govern- 

of  Tuberculosis,  401  ment   and    philanthropy, 

Nat'l  Assn.  for  Promoting  292;    sought    by    givers, 

Industrial         Education,  342 

45,  232  Negro,  appeals,  43,  123 

Nat'l  Clearing  House   for  Newark,  N.  J.,  169 

Givers    and    Appealers,  New  Jersey,  4 

see  Clearing  house  N.  J.  State  Conference  of 


434 


INDEX 


Charities  and  Correc- 
tions, 364 

Newspaper  symposium  on 
giving,  225 

Newspapers,  see  Reports, 
Advertising 

New  York  City,  4,  13,  31, 
40,    73,    93,    171,    197, 

198,  206,  280,  322,  336, 
347,  373,  374 

New  York  State,  227 

N.  Y.  Assn.  for  Improving 
the  Condition  of  the 
Poor,  201,  206,  335, 
417 

N.  Y.  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research,  12,  23,  117, 
363,  374,  394,  413 

N.  Y.  Child  Welfare  Ex- 
hibit, 360-365  . 

N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  225, 
228 

N.     Y.     Milk    Committee, 

199,  349,  403 
N.  Y.  World,  336 
Norfolk,  Va.,  127 


O 


Oklahoma,  5,  112 
Opdycke,  Leonard  E.,  233 
Oregon,  4 


Paris,  239 
Pennsylvania,   227 
Pensions,  teachers,  44,  231 ; 
ministers  and  ministers' 


wives,  84;  mothers,  86 
Personal  interview,  see  In- 
terview 
Personal   equation,   exalta- 
tion of,  264,  265;  meth- 
ods of  raising  funds,  311 
Peter  the  Hermit,  174 
Philadelphia,  78,  256,  313, 

338 
Philanthropy,  via  business, 
168;      free      discussion, 
212;  needs  not  met,  292; 
by   public    money,    314; 
failures,  351,  417;  lists, 
367;  relation  to  govern- 
ment, 385,  420,  421 ;  see 
Giving,  Topics 
Phipps,  Mr.  Henry,  13 
Poverty,  abolition  of,   381 
Press,  see  Advertising 
Prisons,    reform,    76,    80; 
rewarding  and  using  la- 
bor,    76 ;     management, 
81;  ex-convict,  82;  sys- 
tematic employment,  87 
Princeton  College,  43 
Princeton,  N.  J.,  364 
Pritchett,  President,  402 
Provident  Loan  bonds,  206 
Public,  what  it  wants,  72; 
service        of        clearing 
house,    289 ;    contributes 
to  charity  through  taxes, 
304;  untrained,  410;  see 
Advertising,  Topics 
Public     service,     scientific 

management,  360 
Public  schools,  see  Schools 


INDEX 


485 


B 


Relief  funds,  local,  83,  283 
Reports  of  agencies,  ap- 
peals, 206 ;  comprehen- 
sive, 207;  annual  to 
press,  207 ;  distributed 
by  clearing  house,  294; 
confidential  charities, 
298,  299;  on  money 
spent  by  beneficiaries, 
405 ;  see  Agencies 
Responsibility,         lodging, 

349 
Rice,  Mrs.  William  B.,  274 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  169 
Rockefeller,  John   D.,   10, 
S3,    34,    143,    184,    194, 
212,  223,  324,  351,  410, 
414 
Rockefeller,  J.  D.,  Jr.,  78, 

241 
Rockefeller    Institute    for 
Medical     Research,     80, 
289, 352 
Rockefeller        Foundation, 

252,  415 
Rockefeller  Sanitary  Com- 
mission, 352 
Roe,  Clifford,  241 
Rome,  Georgia,  19 
Rosenwald,  Julius,  251 
Ruses,  98;  see  Agencies 
Russell    Sage    Foundation, 
232,  294,  413 


Sage,  Mrs.,  10,  34,  228 


Sailors'  Snug  Harbor,  189 

Saturday  and  Sunday  Hos- 
pital Association,  350 

Schools,  helping  school 
children,  19,  85,  232, 
347 ;  help  through  health 
department,  19;  appeals 
for,  41-48;  instruction  in 
citizenship,  74 ;  voca- 
tional, 76,  350;  social 
centers,  76;  nation  wide 
needs,  231 ;  will  making, 
231 ;  national  coopera- 
tion with  philanthropy, 
232;  colleges,  234;  na- 
tional fund  for  promot- 
ing efficient  administra- 
tion, 234;  public  in- 
terest, 345;  needs  met 
by  public  budget,  374; 
physical  examination, 
384 

Schuyler,  Miss  Louisa  Lee, 
274 

Social,  progress,  272;  im- 
provement, 273 ;  prob- 
lems, 347;  spirit,  259, 
260;  in  Europe,  260; 
training,  290 ;  needs, 
100%  of,  371;  see  Top- 
ics 

Social  service,  383-386; 
trained  workers,  290 ;  at- 
titude toward  rich,  402; 
product  of  environment, 
418;  disintegration,  418 

Society  for  the  Prevention 
of  Cruelty  to  Children, 
206 


436  INDEX 

South,  appeals  for,  43,  61,  chosen      for      efficiency, 
111,  174  178;     duties,     178;     re- 
Standardizing,  see  Appeals  sponsibility  for  appeals, 
State  Charities  Aid  Associ-  178;  social  workers'  re- 

ation,  206,  274  lation  to,  418 

St.  Louis,  19,  233  Tuberculosis,      prevention, 

Suburban      Homes      Com-  50,  70,  71,  284 

pany,  206 

Survey,  The,  242,  410  U 

T  Unconditional     gifts,     see 
Giving 

Taxes,     cpmmunity     needs  University    of    Wisconsin, 

met,   226;   transfer   and  92 

ordinary,     290;     philan-  United  States   census,  256 
thropy      through,      290, 

304,      305,      352,      380;  V 
efficient      giving,      294 ; 

schools      supported     by,  Vagrancy,       see       Giving, 
309,    352;    for   benefac-  Trustees 
tions,  380;  evaders,  382;  Virginia,  285 
on    capital    and   inherit- 
ance, 382  W 

Teachers,    developed,    82 ; 

see  Pensions  Wall  Street,  90,  99,  160 

Texas,  341  Ward,     Mr.     John     Seely, 

Toledo,  O.,  17  142,  325 

Training  School  for  Public  Washington,  State  of,  9G 

Service,  38,  90,  421  Webster,  169 

Trudeau's,  96  W.  C.  T.  U.,  243 

Trust     funds,     advantages  White  slave  evil,  relation  to 

of,  220;  laws,  249,  256;  society,  80;  letter  to  Mr. 

public    accounting,    252*  Rockefeller,     244;     pre- 

Franklin,    257;     N.     Y.  vention,  242 

City,  257  Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler,  34, 

Trustees,     named     on     ap-  243 

peals,     137;     inbreeding  Wills,  standards   for  mak- 

on     boards,     176,     177,  ing,    78,    246-251;    effi- 

178;  vagrancy  of,  177;  ciency,  169;  for  schools, 


INDEX  m 

230-234;        alternatives,  Women,  cooperative  hotels, 
244,  248;  motives  of  giv-  55,  87,  122,  196 
ing   expressed    in.    J 17;  White  Rose  Industrial  As- 
exptrts      needed,      849  J  sociation,  127 
needs     submitted,     249;  Wright  Brothers,  34 
free      discussion,     250;  Wyoming,  112 
legacies     reassigned     by  v 
state,  250 ;  facts  for,  fur- 
nished by  clearing  house,  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  17,  41,  Gl,  97, 
290;  see  Endowments  125 

Wisconsin,  88  Yale,  96 

Woman's  Exchange,  93  Young,  Ella  Flagg,  243 


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